Sara
by Arones
Summary: She died on the table yet the infant lived. So only one question remained...what now?  Previously "A Year in the Life of the Sanctuary" .
1. Chapter 1

She struggled to make it to the gate; the pain was increasing quickly and she could no longer feel the child's movements within her womb. A slice ran through her back and brought her to her knees as she hardly made it to the metal bars. Her hand slid over the locking mechanism an easy one to break for someone of her experience. Grabbing hold of the wrought iron she pushed forward and forced herself inside the Sanctuary and towards the fortified walls.

Helen Magnus heard the perimeter alarms sound and immediately flipped through the security cameras attempting to discover any information about the situation at hand. She was surprised to see the woman heaped against the gate on the rain soaked ground. Her clothes ragged and drenched and her body unmoving except for the slight rise and fall from her uncontrolled breaths. She reached for the radio quickly, "Henry, I need the infirmary ready." Pushing away from her desk she moved quickly to the door leading outside. Hearing a "Got it Doc" on her way out.

She was the first to reach the woman and noticed the blood soaking the ground. Taking her pulse Magnus wiped away dull brown strands of hair from the woman's face—she looked oddly familiar. Magnus ran her fingers over the prone form searching for injuries, for any cause of her rapid pulse and lack of movement. The large coat was covering most of her body needed to be removed; Magnus slowly opened the front of the lapel and stared hard at the bulge. She was pregnant, and heavily at that. It was then that she saw where the blood was coming from—this was not good.

She spoke once again into the radio as Bigfoot arrived to assist. "Henry, I need a neonatal unit in the OR." She could sense Henry's pause at her words, knew he was taking a minute to digest what she'd asked him words, but she didn't have a minute. Releasing the button on the radio she turned to her oldest friend. "We need to get her inside now." The Big Guy picked the woman up in one swoop and quickly made his way back to the front doors. She followed closely behind making sure the gate was shut and locked before hurriedly going back inside.

Once in the infirmary she slipped off her rain soaked jacket and flipped her hair up in a pony. Donning sterile gloves and a mask she began to work at the woman's clothes cutting them off as fast as she could. When the woman was finally void of material that would get in the way, Magnus assessed the situation further, she was most definitely thirty-nine to forty weeks, but she had not taken care of herself. There were bruises all over her body and track marks on her forearms and in between her fingers. It took Magnus two tries to get the IV in and even then she wasn't sure it wouldn't blow soon thereafter. She slapped on the electrodes to monitor her heart rate and that of the fetus.

She started the ultrasound to find if the infant had turned yet when the young woman's eyes flickered open. "Don't let me die." Helen turned, leaning over the still frame. "Don't let me die."

Helen's hand came up to the woman's cheek; she could see the fear, the terror in the younger woman's eyes. "I promise." The younger nodded and moved a hand to her abdomen.

"It hurts."

"I know," Helen didn't remove her hand as the tears began to fall through the pained lashes. "It's too late to give you anything to help with that." The woman just nodded understanding. "What's your name?"

"Sara. Whitcomb." Helen could see the girl waiting for the reaction—to be kicked out. Dana Whitcomb's daughter at her own door—how ironic?

"Well Sara," Helen plastered a smile on her face, "it looks like you're going to have a baby today." Helen made to move away, but Sara gripped her hand.

"Please, don't let me die."

"I promise—"

"No! You don't understand!" Sara was getting desperate, she needed this woman to understand; it was the only way she could survive, she clenched in pain as another contraction hit. "She put something inside me." It was a whisper, nothing else.

"Who did?" She should not have asked that question first, she should have asked what it was.

"The doctor, my mother had her do it. Please don't let me die." Her face contorted in pain as a sharp contraction hit her again.

"Just breathe," Magnus' voice was calm and soothing, completely opposite of the woman before her.

Sara just shook her head violently from one side to the other, "It's not right, something's not right!" She began to seize, her body going into convulsions. Bigfoot stepped in to help Magnus hold on to her flailing limbs down. Sara began to cough up blood, her body shaking and jerking.

"We need to get the baby out now." Magnus shouted, a little uncharacteristically. She shot a paralytic into the IV and waiting for Sara's body to stop all movement. As soon as she did, Magnus began her work, slicing into the lower abdomen—through the skin first and then through the wall of the womb. The babe's head was right there, she could see it. Glancing quickly at the monitors and then at Sara's complacent face she started to pull the baby. This would be the quickest C-section she had ever performed.

Placing the baby on the mother's chest she swiftly began to rub her skin, clearing the fluid from its mouth and nose. "Come on," she chanted quietly; vigorously she rubbed the baby's chest until she heard the soft intake of breath. Handing the newborn to Bigfoot she returned to the first patient. She heard the explosion, felt it in the woman's body as she moved to close the wound. Looking quickly at the monitors they all read dead. "What?" She moved her hands to find a pulse—nothing. Starting CPR she pushed down on the woman's chest to only have blood flow from her lips over her cheeks and out of her ears. Magnus stopped immediately. It was then that she heard the soft sounds of the second and third minute explosion, was the best way she could describe it. Stepping back suddenly she barely missed the blood spattering from Sara's open stomach.

"Dear God," passed through Magnus' lips as she leaned over the still and very dead girl. "She was right." Moving her already bloodied hands to the opening, Magnus looked inside. Everything was destroyed: the liver, the kidneys, the intestines, the stomach. Taking the knife Magnus sliced into the woman's chest. Her heart was disintegrated. It was here that she found small pieces of metal floating in the escaping bodily fluids. They were bombs—they must have been designed specifically to kill the girl after the contractions had started. "Dear God," uttered once again, there were dozens of them in various places around her body.

She closed the body and cleaned her skin: her mind reeling with unanswered questions. Finishing, she pulled the gloves from her hands and headed into the room next door, where she knew the infant was. She could hear the soft wails and smiled to herself, knowing exactly what the child wanted. The three men in her life were surrounding the clear hospital bassinette looking from the infant to each other in utter confusion. Kate, not surprisingly, was among them.

Helen reached in and picked up the child, holding her close to her chest. "Henry," said quietly, looking into the eyes staring up at her. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a fifty. "Go to the store, I need formula and diapers." He took the money and turned, then quickly flipped around.

"What?"

"I'll go with him." Kate stated pulling him back by the shoulder, "He'd probably end up getting pull-ups if he went by himself."

Helen smirked at that, knowing it was very possibly true. Patting the baby's bottom she began to sway back and forth. Bigfoot and Will exchanged glances before moving away without a word. This was a side of her that Will had never seen and could barely even imagine—but then again, she was a mother.

Helen held on to the child until she quieted and fell asleep in her arms. Carrying her carefully in one arm Magnus made her way to the lab with the samples she had taken from the infant's mother. She wanted to know exactly how those bombs inside her had worked. Why kill the mother? Why would Dana Whitcomb place her own daughter in that situation? How could any parent do that?

Performing lab work one-handed was not something she had done in a while, but she was getting the hang of it again. Using her teeth to open the eppendorf tubes full of samples she had taken from Sara. She once again found that pipetting was the easy part one-handed. Glancing quickly down at the infant once again she moved to look into the microscope. She felt the eyes on her; leaning back she looked down again. "Hey there little one," lifting a finger she traced the soft cheek of the hours old babe, "I know you're hungry, Henry should be back soon with something for you." Her eyes crinkled and she looked down into her arms. "What to do with you now? Send you back to that awful woman? I should hardly think so." The infant started to coo and Helen stood bouncing the child lightly in her arms, humming.

"Uh, Doc?" She looked up to find Henry and Will standing in the doorway: Henry awkwardly holding the bottle in front of him. "The Big Guy made it up." She took it from in, testing the temperature on her bare wrist before feeding the infant.

"Right… then," she looked odd, standing there and feeding the infant and trying to maintain her enclosed persona. "Sara was implanted with fourteen devices that were set to kill her as soon as she began labor. They were set off one by one from the beginning of her contractions until just after I delivered the child. Now, Sara is the child of Dana Whitcomb and she told me that he mother had done this to her." She looked around at her staff, "What else have we learned?" She looked pointedly to each person, one after the other. "Well?"

They all looked down at their toes, Biggie speaking and thrusting his hand forward and grunting, "Found this, in her jacket."

Resting the bottle against her breast, Magnus took the paper and unfolded it against her leg.

_Helen,_

_If you are reading this, then I am undoubtedly dead and you were unable to save me. Three months ago my mother contacted me and asked I participate in one of her experiments. She impregnated me with an embryo and asked that I bring it to term. What she failed to tell me was that the embryo had been altered to grow rapidly. That was only a few weeks ago. It was two days ago that I understood why all this was happening. I am truly sorry._

_She is yours._

_Sara_

Magnus read it again. And again. Her mouth opened and shut multiple times as she looked from person to person, again and again. Finally, she let her gaze fall to the infant who was still suckling the now empty bottle.

"Magnus?" It was Will who spoke. She handed him the paper and waited for him to finish. He didn't say anything just looked at her. Helen looked at the others dismissing them quietly and they took the hint. She looked down at the child again and back up to him, tears swimming in her eyes.

She shook her head, "I can't." She looked down at the infant again, "I can't." Shoving the child into Will's reluctant arms she practically ran out of the room.

"Ok then." He turned around not quite knowing what to do. The infant started to spit up, "Eww." He held the baby away from him and grimaced; "Gross." Tapping lightly on the baby's back as he held the girl with one hand which allowed the spit up to dribble down the back of his hand. Attempting not to vomit himself he waited until the infant was done. Moving back to the infirmary he placed the infant on a bed as he moved to the sink washing his hands, gagging. He took a wet cloth and moved over the infant cleaning her face and the blanket she was wrapped in. Deciding the blanket needed to be changed he removed it quickly only to discover that he didn't know how to replace it.

Kate showed up precisely at the moment. "Kate!" He called exacerbated. "Help a guy out will ya?" She came over and looked at the situation.

Sighing she made a quick decision. "Ok, but this does not leave the room."

"Anything you want, just help."

Sighing heavily one more time she quickly laid the infant on the fresh blanket and folded once, twice and then tucked in once and twice and was finished. "There. I swear Will, if this leaves the room—" She walked out on that comment, knowing he wouldn't dare.

"Ok, now what?" He looked down at the infant who started to cry. "Oh, no, please don't do that!" He picked the infant up, holding her away from his chest but she continued to cry. Giving up, he pulled the infant in close, like he had seen Magnus do and she quieted instantly. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Talking to himself once again: "Ok, baby asleep. Now, what the hell was that about with Magnus?" His brain began running quickly and surprisingly it took him a few scenarios before he came up with the obvious. "Ashley."

He headed to her office; they were going to discuss this whether she liked it or not. The door was open, she wasn't there. Instinctively he knew this, but he went inside anyway. Perhaps he shouldn't take the infant with him when he confronted her. The girl was, after all, the problem.

Radioing the Big Guy he got a quick response. "I'm setting up the bassinette in the nursery. You can bring her by." He grunted.

"Ok, be there in two." The bassinette was made up and the Big Guy was working on some sort of swing as Will laid the infant down. "Right, have fun you two." Walking away quickly he made for the one place she went to think. Climbing the tower stairs he knew she was there. The rain hadn't stopped, in fact, it had grown fiercer. Upon opening the door he was hit with a sudden wave of wind and water pelting him. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she stood on the ledge. Coming to stand behind her he grabbed her shoulder pulling her back and down off the wall and level with him.

"She's not Ashley, Magnus." He was looking right into her eyes, boring the thought into her brain. "She's not… Ashley."

Her eyes widened when she looked at him, "I know." It was so quiet he almost didn't hear her, "But still—I can't help but think—be reminded of all that's happened." Taking a breath she began to relax. "God, what am I supposed to do with a baby?" Her eyes connected with his again. "I can't take that loss again—even if it is from old age. I will outlive her. I can't watch another child die."

There she had said it, her biggest fear. It was the reason why she hadn't gone to see the Count, why she huddled away in her own little world year after year. She was afraid of what yet another devastation of significant magnitude would do to her. She was looking at her feet and he couldn't help but feel an overwhelming urge to hug her. Three years ago he never would have considered the possibility of giving her physical comfort. She was untouchable. "C'mere." He pulled her into an embrace wrapping his arms around her. She was a taken aback for a moment, but her hands found his back quickly as her face buried in his chest finding his clothes drenched. The tears fell from her eyes unbidden—God, when was the last time she had cried?

She rubbed her nose in his shirt, and it was moments later before she spoke "You're all wet." Her voice was muffled, but he could hear the hitch of a joke on it.

"Well that tends to happen when standing outside in a storm." He could feel her smile.

"Thank you, Will." She placed a hand on his chest pushing back slightly. Glancing up she placed her hand on his cheek. Only seconds later she turned towards the door going back inside. He followed only steps behind when he saw her shiver. Figures she would catch a cold from this, it would be her own doing—he would not be sympathetic.

"Hey, go get warmed up and changed—it's Kate's night for dinner and she said she was actually going to cook this time." Magnus looked back at him as he spoke. If Kate was cooking, that meant two things: the first was that it would be edible and the second that it would be Indian and amazing.

Her lips quirked into a soft smile, "Ah, you know the way to my heart young William." He heard her teasing tone and went with it.

"Hurry up now or I'll eat it all before you get a chance." He made his way to his own room to change.


	2. Chapter 2

She awoke to soft crying emanating from the monitor. She had volunteered to take it to prove a point to herself—that she could actually take care of this child. Taking a deep breath she pushed the quilt so it slid across her tired legs and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. Taking another deep breath she stood, grabbing her silk robe and padding barefoot to the door. It was almost time for the two o-clock feedings—she should have just offered, since she no doubt would have been awake. Pity—there was always the next night.

Making her way to the nursery she pushed the door open to hear only quiet cooing. That would all change soon to louder persistent cries that would pierce the night. Pulling the bundle out of the crib she held the baby close to her chest bouncing lightly. Someone needed a diaper change. Laying the child on the changing table she went to work—this was not something she missed about babies. She loved being up in the night when all else was sleeping except her and the child. The world was still in the house and all around the city and it left her plenty of time to think and be free of the confines of professionalism and responsibilities.

Finishing quickly, she made her way to the kitchen, infant in tow. Taking hold of a premade bottle she threw it in the microwave. Looking down on the open eyes of the child in her arms she flashed to years earlier when she had done this with her own daughter. The machine sounding its end pulled her from her thoughts. Taking hold of the warm bottle she made her way back to her rooms, feeding the child as she went.

She heard Will's alarm sound, effectively waking him for the feedings; leaning against the door jamb, she waited for him to emerge. He hadn't bothered dressing before he opened the door, stumbling through it and only stopping when he saw her. "Hey," he rubbed his eyes to remove the sleep.

"Hello," she had a soft smile on her face, one he rarely saw but loved to try and provoke from her.

He curved a finger over the smooth, delicate skin of the infant's temple, "How is our newest addition to the family?"

She started, looking into his eyes; acceptance was so easy for him. "Hungry," simply put. His finger trailed once again over her skin.

Humming to himself with tongue in cheek he continued, "Well one less feeding for me." Smirking he glanced at Magnus; their faces were very close, breath mingling, the tension rising. Taking a step back he continued, "See you at the staff meeting." One last glance down and he moved on, leaving her alone with the infant—they really were going to have to name her soon.

* * *

><p>Will knocked on her door gently. It wasn't like her to miss staff meeting, but then again there were a lot of changes going on. He hadn't given it much thought; rather he'd just taken over and let the meeting play out. There was not a lot to discuss, so it wasn't a great loss. Magnus still had to perform the autopsy, Kate and Henry were out finding an abnormal that had been sighted in New City and the Big Guy was doing his rounds of feeding. There was a meeting with the New York Sanctuary to see how the new Head of House was settling in, and Will could easily take care of that for her as well—although, he knew she wanted to be there. Hence the reason he was knocking at her door.<p>

She didn't answer. Shrugging he tried again—but there was still no response. Placing his hand on the knob he was surprise to find it unlocked. He had always figured her to be one to lock everything when in sleep mode: a way to protect herself against any unforeseen force. Pushing the wood he saw her curled on top of the covers. Will's smile broadened when he caught a glimpse of the pink bundle caressed in the protective circle of her arms. Stepping quietly to the side of the bed and her back he sat precariously on the edge of the mattress. "Magnus," He called quietly. Her head nodded slightly in sleep, rubbing against the pillow. "Magnus," his voice was louder than before, his hand moved to her arm. He almost didn't want to wake her, but she would already be angry with him for letting her sleep through the meeting. It would do him no good to give her further fuel. He moved his hand up to her shoulder shaking slightly. She turned into him, groaning. "Magnus—time to wake up."

Her eyes opened slightly at the voice, blinking back the sleep. "Long night," she made out finally. She began to stretch her weary muscles and he stood to give her room. Her hands above her head at the pinnacle of her stretch and she suddenly sat up. "My God Will, what time is it?"

"10:30."

"What?" The surprise in her voice was evident. She looked down at the sleeping bundle next to her. Her mind was going a million miles an hour, he could hear it. "Why didn't you wake me sooner?"

He shrugged again, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "It's a pretty simple morning and I thought you could use the rest."

"Yeah, well obviously I did. Thank you."

"But I also thought you would want to be there to talk to New York. So you got—" glancing at his watch, "20 minutes now."

Rolling her eyes she got out of the warm bed. Cuddling the babe she placed a kiss on the fuzzy head. She made to Will placing her gingerly in his arms. "Get her ready will you? I'll be late otherwise."

He nodded and began to leave. She stood stationary watching him. "We'll be fine." He said to reassure her pulling the door open at the same time.

"Right." Still, she didn't budge from her spot until he was gone. "Right." Moving quickly she pulled out slacks, shirt and vest, donning her clothes in seconds. Tugging her hair into a loose bun at the back of her head was easier than brushing it and with only twenty minutes it would have to do.

Will was having trouble getting the, now awake, infant into the dress that had been set aside for her. The clothes were much easier to get off than on. He was growling at the white stocking as for the umpteenth time he tried to get it over her foot. Helen appeared at the door to the nursery, witnessing his frustration. Placing her earring firmly in place and latching the clasp she made her way into the room.

"You clean up nice." He glanced at her and gladly let her sure hands take over where his had been clumsy.

The infant was dressed in seconds and they were making their way to her office. "Well thank you, William. I do try." She responded to his earlier comment before moving on without a pause, "Is the play pen in my office yet?"

"Yeah, the Big Guy brought it in this morning."

"Good, mind getting a bottle before we start?" He stopped. It took her a moment to catch on. "What is it, Will?"

"You're bringing her to the meeting aren't you?"

"Well she needs to eat, then she'll go back to sleep. Honestly, she won't disturb anything."

"I didn't say she would. It was more a comment on how taken you are with her than your parenting skills." It took her a moment, but she did turn her lips up. "I'll be back with breakfast."

Taking hold of his wrist she held him still, "Thank you, Will. You have been most helpful." He nodded and made his exit.

* * *

><p>She was just making the call when he came back in. Holding the bottle against her body, she positioned the child out of sight of the camera. She did not want to explain the infant to a new Head of House. The call was answered as Will slid into the chair next to her.<p>

"Afternoon." Magnus greeted.

"Morning." The face of the man was pleasant as he smiled at her.

"Pardon my tardiness; we had some issues last night that needed to be resolved."

"Easily understood, thinking nothing of it."

She nodded, glancing down at the infant, "How are the evaluations going?"

"Decently. I am glad you gave me the extension; I'm having enough difficulty now after only being here for six months. I can't imagine doing them after two."

"Yes—easier when you know your staff a bit, although it does become more difficult the longer you know them as well." She looked directly at Will.

"How is the staff handling the shift? No major issues yet?" Will, always concerned for the mental welfare of his people spoke up.

"Only the getting past the _getting-to-know-you_ stage and minor adjustments to differing styles in leadership."

"As was expected." Magnus stated.

"Yes. There are only a few individuals who are having a hard time with the change."

"Oh?"

Taking a deep breath, Jephthah continued, "Only one really. Wexford's second. She is having a very hard time accepting the other Head's choice to relieve him. She seems to think he was in the right. I believe there might have been a personal relationship between the two of them and I believe this is the reason she is having so much difficulty."

"I see."

"Her work is amazing, don't get me wrong. It is very helpful to have a xenobiologist on hand. We just captured a new abnormal that was giving us some issues. She handled the situation beautifully."

"I look forward to reading the report then." The infant was done feeding and needed to be burped—maybe she hadn't thought this through. "Will, could you-?" She handed the child to him and he gladly took her. Moving to the play pen he grabbed a towel and rolled it over his shoulder.

He moved back to stand behind Magnus, who had continued the conversation, but switching from staffing to finances. As he patted the infant's back and she began to vomit. Taking a breath, but not too deeply for fear of the overwhelming smell, he wiped her face clean and deposited the towel far away from him. Handing the child back to Magnus she moved the notepad in her lap to accommodate and not breaking in her thought process or questioning on the other Head. She also very easily ignored the look he gave her.

"Are you having any issues with abnormals?"

"No, all the facilities are working—and they all seem happy at the moment."

"Good. We had another generation of Nubbins here, by accident. Do you think you could handle a few? Our containment is becoming a little small and your facility will have more time to research the pheromone and its effects."

"I'd be happy to."

"I'll have Henry prepare containment for shipping." She made a note on her yellow pad. "That's all I have for now. Anything you have to add?" She was looking at Will.

"Only to be careful with the Nubbins." She had a slight quirk on her lips when she turned back to the screen.

"Anything you would like to discuss?"

The man shook his head a moment after she saw a question flash through his eyes. Curiosity was not always a good thing to have and he had wisely held his tongue. "Good, until next time then." She clicked the screen off. "That went well." Standing she moved to the couch. "Did she throw up most of the bottle?" He nodded and she sighed. "I had the same issue last night. I should take some blood, run a few tests. I don't think it's anything serious, but I just want to rule anything out."

"Alright. I'll go down and leave a note for Henry." At her look of confusion he continued, "He's out with Kate tracking an abnormal."

"Ah." They left the room and walked together until their paths parted. Taking the sample was not difficult and she set the tests to run. Finding Will, she entrusted him with the child before making her way to the morgue, which was definitely not a place for an infant. Her phone rang as she entered the elevator. Looking at the caller ID she smiled, "Declan. What can I do for you?"

"Magnus… what is this about you and a baby?"

"Word travels quickly." She responded sighing heavily while the doors opened to a hallway. "A woman arrived here yesterday, very pregnant and very much in labor. The child is hers. However, the mother did not make it through the night due to some… unforeseen circumstances. She left the child in my care."

"Really, Magnus, how do you get yourself into situations like these?"

"Honestly, I don't know to what you are referring."

"Of course you don't." She could hear him grinning.

"The mother—Declan," she took a breath, "She was Dana Whitcomb's daughter."

He was silent, this had not been what he expected to hear; something more to the story, yes, but not this. "And what killed the mother?"

"I haven't performed a full autopsy just yet; I was on my way to do that as a matter of fact. But I can tell you this. She was most certainly killed; I found small particles of metal in her body after the cesarean—little bombs, in other words. Many of them; in fact, she was torn apart inside. This is going to be a long autopsy. I need to figure out exactly which one killed her and who and why for that matter."

"Understood. Magnus?"

"Hmm?"

"Be careful, Dana Whitcomb is not someone to mess around with and that is her granddaughter."

"I'm not so sure of that." She blatantly ignored his protectiveness of her.

"What do you mean?"

"Something the daughter said about her pregnancy only lasting weeks and this all being an experiment. I'll know more after the autopsy."

"Alright, just keep me updated."

"Of course, Declan, would I do otherwise?"

"Yes." He said simply before hanging up.


	3. Chapter 3

The autopsy didn't give her any information that she didn't already know. Sighing heavily Magnus looked into the microscope at the infant's blood hoping to find some answers there and perhaps change her luck. She found an odd abnormality in the white cells that a scan had led her too. Texting Will to check on the girl's welfare she again looked into the eyepiece. Aside from the obvious low white cell count; there was something peculiar about their shape. Her mind began to catalogue the possibilities when her phone dinged, alerting her to a text.

'_She's fine, Magnus, overbearing much?'_

Smirking, she responded: '_Just checking. Henry and Kate?'_

'_Not back yet. Sewers again. Kate is not happy.'_

Reading it quickly she went back to work on the samples. Now there was at least one answer to her questions—why the girl was not holding her meals. She texted Will: '_Need the girl. Have partial diagnosis.'_

Not two seconds after she sent the message he appeared at the door, "Which is?"

"Low white blood cell count, dangerously low. We need to perform a transfusion and it should help with her vomiting and sluggishness." Taking the child from him she cooed lightly at the sleeping face.

"Can it wait until after lunch? You haven't eaten today and it's starting to get late."

Smiling and placing her lips against the crown of the child's head, "What do you think about Sara?"

"Uh…"

"For her name: it was her mother's name and her mother did give her life for the girl, albeit unwillingly."

"Sure, sounds good. And about lunch?" He easily saw through her manipulation of the conversation.

"Very well. Lead the way Dr. Zimmerman." She brushed her hand out in front of her.

* * *

><p>It had been a few days since the transfusion and the girl seemed to be doing much better. She was keeping food down on a regular basis, at least. Drawing blood from the foot of an infant was not a pleasant task, yet at regular intervals Magnus did just that. Sara's white blood cells had been replenished easily enough, but their odd shape was just as puzzling as ever.<p>

It wasn't until four days after the infant's birth that Magnus realized the cells weren't the only odd thing about the girl. She had rolled over the night before and was sleeping far less than any newborn. She was also growing faster than she should be. It was that day that she was racing down to the lab to perform a full genetic workup that her phone rang.

"Declan—I'm a little busy at the moment, mind making this quick?" Her voice betrayed none of the worry she was feeling as she moved swiftly through the halls.

"No. There's a Head of House meeting in five minutes. Your presence is required, not requested." That almost got her to stop for a moment. Almost. Holding the phone with her shoulder she placed the girl in a swing that had been brought into the lab. Magnus was not very trusting when it came to the infant and she was becoming less trusting as each day passed.

"What is this about, Declan? I have a very sick patient who needs my attention." So she was exaggerating, but it was only a little.

"This is not optional, Magnus. There have been some rumors and questions concerning your conduct and frankly, after Mumbai, everyone wants to solve this quickly."

"What rumors?" Taking a syringe of the girl's blood she set two samples and a control. She also flipped her monitor on so she could see Declan and free her hands completely.

"About some of your conduct of late."

"Declan, stop being cryptic. I have neither the time nor patience to think this through." Setting the test to run she stopped working and looked directly at the London Head ignoring his pause as he grasped for words. "Well?"

"There are some questions concerning your relationship with Will and the actual parentage of the girl." She leaned slightly back from the screen and forced herself not to fold her arms over her chest. "Magnus, after New York—"

"Alright," She cut him off waving a hand in front of her body. "I still take objection to this line of questioning. Do you honestly think that we would be nothing but professional?"

"No I don't, but there are good reasons for concern."

"Really? I find that hard to believe, but I've heard enough." Hitting a few buttons on her computer she began the call to all the heads and texted Will. '_Emergency and unnecessary HOH meeting. DND.'_

He replied quickly: '_Will create second emergency in T-6 min.'_

Magnus smirked as more monitors popped up with faces looking and watching her closely. Helen moved from around the desk in order to face the firing squad full on. "Alright everyone, I have heard there has been some questioning pertaining to my professionalism." Glancing at Jephthah's face she knew exactly where these rumors had started.

"Yes." Pili was the first to respond. "There are questions concerning the nature of your relationship with Will." She was always the diplomat and, as Magnus had discovered in the last few years, someone who had her back.

Taking a preemptive stance she began speaking rapidly, "Will is my employee. I hired him because of his ability to think outside the box. Watson had asked me to consider hiring a profiler years before I brought Dr. Zimmerman into the Sanctuary. His abilities in profiling and psychiatry have been invaluable to my team and the network. His work experience in the American governmental system allows him to easily work with or around law enforcement agencies."

"It is not your professional relationship that is in question, Magnus. It is your personal relationship with him." New York—she was beginning to regret making this man Head of House.

"He is my employee, a valued colleague and friend: nothing more." Her eyes did not falter in their direction of glare.

"So you've never considered any other kind of relationship with him?"

Taking a breath she calmed herself. "Anyone who lives in the same home as another person develops a unique relationship—as I'm sure you are all aware. Therefore Dr. Zimmerman and I have a very deep friendship which includes a great deal of respect and mutual understanding. Beyond that, if our relationship were otherwise, I do not see how that would be of concern for you.

"There are no fraternization rules on purpose. The nature of our work does not allow for normal romantic relations. Thus, I felt when writing the charters, that it would be inappropriate for me to control or regulate any type of relationship one could have. Yes, I realize this can lead to further issues that may need to be resolved by an outside source. But this was not a decision I made lightly, and one I still agree with. We live in a world of uncertainty and constant change, who am I to decide whether an employee can or cannot have a constant in their life." She stopped looking at each face in front of her.

"Your charter is not what is in question, Magnus." Declan finally spoke up. "Your conduct is, however regrettably."

"What conduct? " She was becoming angry and frustrated again—these games were ridiculous and pointless. The conduct they were asking about was not forbidden by the charter so where was their concern coming in? Yes, all relationships had ups and downs and if there was romance that usually intensified the results. But it wasn't as if she and Will hadn't already been through their fair share of issues.

"Ravi spoke of some concerns in his personal logs," Tokyo was quick to speak, in an attempt to move further beyond this. "When you were in Mumbai he worried that you were too close to Will. He wondered if you would be able to handle his passing and if you had grown too attached to your young protégé. He also wondered about the nature of your relationship."

Ah, Ravi. The man had been a wonderful Head of House and very observant, if not a constant worrier. "I assure you all that I have dealt with more death than any of you could possibly know. Now, with that in mind—would I grieve? Yes. Would I be affected? Yes. Can you fault me for that? I do not believe so."

There was a moment of silence that didn't last long as Jephthah decided to enter into the conversation which he was no doubt responsible for. "Are you in a sexual relationship with your employee?" The man was bold, however she did appreciate the blatancy and the end it put to this circling around the point.

"No." She stated simply, not waiting a moment's hesitation before she answered the pointed question.

"And the infant's parentage? We have yet to see a report on her and inquiring minds want to know." So here was the real issue—was this going to be another Ashley fiasco or not.

"Ah, that is unknown at this moment in time. The genetic tests are still being performed and it takes a few days for them to produce results. The birth mother was Dana Whitcomb's daughter. Unfortunately, she did not survive the delivery. I am suspicious, however, about how accurate that statement is. The mother made comments that lead me to believe that Whitcomb is alive and up to her usual antics. The infant's father is even more of a mystery—I am awaiting the results and hope to have more answers soon. As to the girl's care: the mother before dying entrusted the girl to my care."

There was silence as a beep rang from the monitor behind her. Taking the out that was given her, Magnus leaned over as the Head's considered her response. She, however, was the first to speak quietly; her voice carried on a hasty breath, "Dear Lord."

Declan was the first to respond. "Magnus, what is it?"

She looked up at him in surprise, "I don't know; I need to run this again. If you'll excuse me I have a patient waiting, along with a growing amount of other work."

"I believe these answers have satisfied." Declan wrapped up the impromptu meeting. He received affirming nods from all other Heads except Jephthah in New York. Magnus ignored them and reset the test to run again. It was only partially through running, but what results had been determinable were thoroughly confusing and worrying. "Magnus, what is it?" Declan was the only one left.

"The test—something must be wrong with the equipment or the system is having a glitch."

"Magnus…"

"These results can't be correct; there must be a glitch somewhere. I need to completely re-run everything and then I will know more. I'll have Henry look at the systems as well and see how this error could be occurring."

"Alright," he said calmly. She was not as composed as she could be and he wanted to be that port in the storm for her. "I'll contact you later." She didn't respond as he closed the call.


	4. Chapter 4

Later that evening Kate found Magnus on the tower leaning against a wall, holding the infant close to her chest. Kate stumbled around for a bit while she watched the woman, trying to find a way to start a conversation. "I hear you decided on a name."

"Yes. Sara: after her mother." Her voice was quiet in response for she was deep in thought, but not to the point where she couldn't converse with the young woman standing in front of her. "I hear you had an interesting day."

Kate sighed heavily sitting across from her boss in Will's usual spot. "Yeah, took three hours to even catch sight of it before we got a chance to lay a trap or take a shot." Magnus' eyes caught her sitting carefully, not leaning forward too much.

"Injuries?"

"Nothing serious," Magnus just gave her a look. "I only think the ribs are bruised and the cut on my leg isn't very deep."

"Henry?" Magnus leaned forward pressing her fingers into Kate's side.

"Just some road rash on his um…backside." Kate said grinning, but winced suddenly when Magnus pushed particularly hard on her left side. "You found it Doc, you can stop now." Teeth clenched tightly as she pushed the pain to the back of her mind.

Magnus ignored Kate's plea and continued on pressing her fingers into the skin. "Doesn't feel fractured, we should still take an x-ray to be sure."

"Tomorrow," Kate pleaded again.

"Alright, tomorrow. Sure you don't need stitches?"

"The Big Guy did them up for me."

Magnus nodded her head and leaned against the wall again looking down at the infant. Her mood was definitely melancholy to say the least and when Kate didn't speak and only sat watching the city below Helen knew the woman wanted something else. Biding her time until Magnus was sure Kate would speak she asked, "Is there something bothering you, Kate?"

The Indian only looked at her boss exasperated, "I was going to ask you the same question."

"That's usually a line for the psychiatrist isn't it?" Magnus looked away again and began to bump her hand against the baby's bottom in a timeless rhythm.

She shrugged, "He's busy with Hank."

"Sent you up here to talk to me, did he?"

Kate nodded in response, "He's worried about something: won't tell me what though." The sun was almost down, the last of the rays were giving an eerie effect over them. There was another long pause before either woman spoke. "I can send him up here if you want, take over with Hank."

"No, you've had a long day, sit and relax."

There was stall in the conversation, but only briefly as Kate was beginning to lose patience, she did only have so much to go around. "Seriously Doc, what's wrong?"

Magnus eyed the woman for a long while before she spoke and turned her face away. "I'm sure they're holding dinner for us." It was a dismissal if Kate ever heard one and she gladly took the bait, this was most definitely a conversation for the shrink—not her.

* * *

><p>Helen rarely let the infant out of her sight after that night on the rooftop. Will had tried to talk to her about it, but she had neatly avoided him by sending him out on missions. She didn't leave the Sanctuary walls for weeks on end.<p>

Will came back with a concussion and a sprained wrist one evening. Patching him up as fast as she could, she started to leave the room and found the door locked. Punching in her code at the panel, it only blinked red in response. Turning her head to the side, she pushed her fingers against the rubber pieces again. She got the same result, "Damn it. What is this?"

Her protégé shrugged behind her, his hands on the edge of the mattress below him as he watched her frustration level rise faster than he had ever seen it before. "I asked Henry for a favor."

Magnus spun around at his voice, her eyes throwing daggers at him, "You did what?"

"We need to talk. _You_ need to stop avoiding. This was the most practical and easiest way to get your undivided attention."

Crossing her arms over her chest she decided to ignore him. Flipping on the computer in the room she began to search through the command codes Henry had written in an attempt to override them. Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she looked at the programming.

"It's not going to work. He's changing the codes on a rotating something or another until I tell him it's ok to let us out." She ignored him. Sighing he got off the medical bed and stood behind her. She was sitting on a swivel chair so he spun it around to face him. "You're not moving. I'm not moving. We are not going anywhere until this is resolved or out in the open. So, where do you want to start?"

She continued to glare at him for a few moments before sighing and giving in. "The Head of House meeting has caused me to reconsider some of my actions and I need to take a step back from life in the Sanctuary and focus on the other aspects that I have neglected in the past. That is all this is about, Dr. Zimmerman, nothing more." Her arms were crossed over her chest, her breathing was shallow and her shoulders set with tension. He catalogued all these and then, lastly, with her professionalizing him he knew where some of the issues where coming from.

Instead of moving away from her he remained. He was obviously making her uncomfortable by being in her space so he moved forward, and pushed her further into discomfort. Her body seemed to shrink before him—maybe he had gone a little far. "Since when have you listened to political pressure?"

"Since it involves not only me." Her breath came out on a huff; she hadn't meant to say that, she gave him too much.

"Who does it involve, Magnus?" She didn't answer; he tilted the chair back so she was leaning up into him, his arms still blocking any exit she might get. "Who did they threaten?"

"They didn't threaten anyone."

"Then who is this about? It's obviously about you and someone else, so who is it about?" Again she was silent, her eyes focusing on the collar of his shirt, her fingers clenching into the material at her sides. She would not allow herself to answer him. She had decided that he would not know what had been discussed. His voice grew quiet as he spoke next, losing its edge of urgency, "Helen, who are you protecting?" Her eyes flicked up to his when he asked that question. There was his answer.

She was protecting him—this had to do with him. What had he done to piss off the entire Sanctuary network enough to warrant an emergency meeting from her? She saw the questions flash through his brain and decided to put him at ease. "It has nothing to do with you; it is entirely a reflection on me and my actions." Her hand reached out grasping his upper arm stroking a thumb over his covered flesh.

"So they are only concerned with your actions, not mine. What is this about, Magnus? I can't imagine anything lately has been questionable."

"It's nothing, I have resolved the issue, and it will not be brought up again." Brought up by whom: him, the network, or her?

"Ok, obviously this is something that is bothering you more than you are letting on. Just tell me what they said," his voice was pleading. "It can't be that bad, can it?"

She drew in a breath, "It's something you have never even considered and something I don't wish to bring to your attention." He was watching her features, calculating the way she held herself: her shoulders were tensed and her voice poignant, sharp and to the point. Her fingers tightened on his arm signaling the end of the conversation, but he wasn't going to let her off that easily. He held his ground.

Resigning herself, she began to speak again. "They think…it has been brought to my attention…I don't agree with…" She stumbled over her own thoughts and words, which was extremely rare for her to do. Conceding to pressure was another thing that she never did, but on some level she thought Will deserved to know. "This is not the first time that I have been accused of having inappropriate relations with an employee."

He squatted down, leaning on his heels as her eyes dropped to her hands that were now folded neatly in her lap. He moved his arm between the two of them, making a back and forth motion, "Between the two of us." He stated and she nodded. "I never—"

"I know you never considered the possibility, but apparently some of the Head's did and my actions toward you in Mumbai and this new situation have not helped matters."

"Magnus, it's not that I haven't considered the possibility, it's that…well you're Helen Magnus."

Her eyes found his and rolled lightly, "Flattering."

"What I mean is—God, you're over 150 years old—"

"Will, its fine, really. I get it."

"No, you don't. I've considered the possibility, believe me I have. I just thought that you hadn't. They really think that." She nodded. "That we—" again his hand moved between them back and forth. He was stunned into silence to say the least.

"Is it really such an outlandish thought?" Now she was becoming defensive.

"Well—yeah, it is."

"My apologies for bringing this conversation up, Dr. Zimmerman; I will be sure not to do so again." She made to stand and he let her, pushing up from the ground. "Don't go to sleep for a few hours, the concussion is not a bad one." Her back was turned to him as she input information onto a chart. He rested his hand on her shoulder and turned her to face him. Her eyes did not make contact with his so he lifted her chin to force her eyes to meet.

Leaning forward, his lips met hers in a tentative kiss. He pulled back quickly, checking her features. Her eyes were closed, her breathing calm and her lips parted. He moved forward again rubbing his lips over hers and flicking his tongue out to taste her mouth. She responded in kind, leaning forward slightly to increase the contact.

His fingers moved to her cheeks and he felt the tears streaking down her face. Her hands clasped the chart like a lifeline. He moved back from her, eyes taking in her red nose, crying eyes and tear stained face. He wiped the moisture away with his hands and waited for her to calm down. "She's Ashley. She's my daughter." Her words came out on a choked sob as he brought his arms around her in an embrace, her face in the crook of his neck as more tears broke away from her.

He squeezed her closer, brushed a hand through her hair and rubbed her back with nimble fingers. "Shh, it's ok, we'll work this out." He pressed a kiss to her temple.

Helen only shook her head in his neck. "I ran the genetic test." She dropped the chart to the floor and grabbed hold of his shirt, her fingers wrinkling the material in their tight grasp. "She's mine and John's daughter: she is Ashley, a perfect match." She refused to pull her head back to look at him and he felt her lips move against his skin. "I ran the test three times. God, Will, what am I going to do?"

"I don't know, but we'll think of something." His hands continued their soothing as her body was wracked with sobs again. He had only seen her cry this hard once before.


	5. Chapter 5

She finished double checking her work quickly and uploaded the document to the shared network that they all used. Taking a breath she hit the final post button allowing the rest of the Head of Houses in on the secret she had kept for only one more week. Sara was crawling now and moving fast towards standing with the aid of furniture.

Taking the girl out of the play pen in the room Helen held her close kissing her cheek and tickling the girl's stomach. Sara let out a glorious giggle that only prodded Helen to continue in her _torment_ of the child. Sara's genetics were no mystery, but how Dana Whitcomb had accelerated the growth process was and unfortunately without that bit of knowledge, the process was also irreversible. Baby Sara was growing faster than any normal child and the more she grew the faster her body aged. It was an exponential process that had started and would not stop until the child's death, which would be in just under a year.

Taking hold of the girl's sides, Helen threw her lightly into the air catching her as she came back down. This was one of Sara's favorite games at the moment and Helen gladly obliged in the playing of it. She caught the girl quickly and swung her down to her hip looking up suddenly. She found John standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame watching her.

"John?"

"Helen." He was smiling; he hadn't seen her like this in years, so blissfully unaware of everything, focused on something or someone that would bring her great happiness. It had been before the source blood. "I didn't know you were expecting." He didn't move.

"Neither did I, her name is Sara." She was swaying slightly to a natural rhythm but was still able to keep a stoic atmosphere about her. "She's our daughter." Her voice was quiet, hardly above a whisper.

John stood quickly, his back pin rod straight at her comment. "Pardon?"

"I thought you killed Dana Whitcomb. You want to explain to me how she took our daughters DNA and cloned her, genetically recreating this life, but altering her to allow her to grow rapidly all while she was supposedly dead? How many more people have you 'killed' that I should know about?"

"Is this a cruel joke?" His voice was raised and she did step away from him, moving to the fire that began to warm her side not losing her ability to watch him. She didn't let go of the child, she would not let him harm her like he had harmed Ashley. He watched her carefully and determined she was not making a joke; she was being completely honest with him.

He moved quickly over to Helen and laid his large hand on the girl's shoulder before pulling back. "Our daughter." Helen only nodded in response as Sara lifted her arms wanting to be held by John. He looked at the woman, silently asking permission. Against her better judgment, Helen handed the child over to him. The girl looked so small in his large arms and frame. "I don't expect anything, Helen."

"I know." She whispered the words watching the child's face light up as John smiled down at her. The girl's hand reached out and slapped lightly against John's cheek, right on the spot where his scar was from the _first_ time Helen had tried to kill him. How ironic, she thought. He probably didn't even notice, his eyes were lit up like that of a new father's, in the way she had always hoped she would get to see. Helen took a step forward laying her palm against the girl's back and rubbing lightly her face glowing. "No matter how much I hate you John, I do love you. You must know that."

"I do." He stated simply, his eyes only leaving his daughters face for a moment as they moved to glance at the mother.

"I will not deny you this, this time. I understand my mistake in lying to Ashley and I cannot deny the knowledge to her or to you. She will know the truth."

"I would expect nothing less."

"Good." Making a quick decision, or two, she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. "Would you like to watch her? I have a conference call I have to make and it would be a nice respite."

He looked bewildered; she hadn't seen that look since the first time she asked him to her bed. His eyes moved over her face in all seriousness trying to figure out if she was being honest and how to get himself out of this situation. He had never been alone with a child before. "I don't think—"

"I can have Will join you, if you would like. He is quite adept at taking care of her."

Conceding he replied, "That would be most appreciated." John bowed his head lightly and left the room with the girl as Helen reached for her phone to talk to Will. That would be a pleasant conversation.

* * *

><p>She was halfway through the conference call when she received not one, not two, but three phone calls from Declan and a text message that stated: <em>Emergency, Call ASAP.<em> She ignored him and finished her call before taking a deep breath. Declan was a wonderful Head of House, but she was afraid he was relying too much on her. However, she had an inkling that this conversation was not as emergent as the Brit declared.

Finally hanging up the phone after calming the Brit down Magnus turned to see Will standing at her door leaning against the frame. "So, words out?" She nodded curtly and began to arrange the files on her desk. "And the result?"

"Panic, as was expected; confusion, as well. I still don't have an answer for them on what to do. Declan wants to have a plan; he wants to know exactly what is going to happen when this backfires. He thinks she should not be here, that I shouldn't be the one caring for her."

"We knew that might happen." He lifted off the wall and moved toward her coming to stand on the other side of the desk.

"Yes, but still, to think that I can't be a mother to my own daughter? It's insulting and infuriating." She let out a breath in an attempt to calm herself. "There is a Head of House call tomorrow that I am not looking forward too." She paused, thinking over her next words carefully. "Would you join me for it?"

"I thought you'd never ask." He smirked at her, trying to lighten the mood.

"Sara?"

"Sleeping. Druitt is as well, passed out about the same time the girl did. I guess she wore him out."

Magnus smiled softly, "John has never been good with children: they make him nervous. It was good that you were there."

"And you let him be alone with her because?"

"He's her father, Will. He does have some rights even if he lacks the responsibility."

"He's the Ripper!" His voice rose and her head snapped in his direction at it.

"I am very aware of that fact, thank you. I denied him to Ashley and Ashley to him. It was a mistake to not let her know who he truly was—she needed to learn about him in order to better understand herself. I will not make that mistake again or deny another child the rights of having a father because of my fear he will make a mistake. Yes, he will be under supervision with her and all situations will be closely watched, but I cannot do that to her again."

"I trust you, Magnus, really I do, but I have to question your judgment in this. How can you let a man, who has killed countless times, into your life and your daughter's without so much as considering the danger?"

It was her voice that rose this time; she stood and stalked over to him. "Do you think that I don't know what I'm doing? I've considered the dangers, Will. I know he has a tendency for violence but I do not believe he would harm his own child. What reason would he have?"

"Like he didn't harm Ashley? Like he didn't try to kill you multiple times?"

"I am not having this conversation with you." Her hands moved in front of her body to signify the end of the discussion.

He pulled her arm towards him to jerk her body closer, so she could understand the seriousness of the situation, "Please Magnus, just think about this ok?" His voice was calmer. He wasn't going to continue beyond, but she had to know that he disagreed with her choices.

"I have thought about this Will, since before Ashley died. This is not a decision that I will change my mind about, or regret later."

Doubting her last statement he answered, "Ok." He released her arm and stepping back. He ran his hands over his face and through his hair sighing. "Ok." Once again, he was going to pick up the pieces after Druitt left. He knew it was going to happen, but there was no way around it.

The tension in the room fled as soon as he let her have her way once again, not that there was anything he could really do to stop her, but he could at least try. She grabbed his fingers and squeezed tightly, "I do appreciate your opinion, Will, I do. It's just that this is a matter that does not concern the Sanctuary, it is a personal choice and one that I have made." He only nodded in response, still holding her hand in his.

They stood like that for a while, their fingers interlocked and testing the ground. He leaned his head towards hers, but she spoke first. "I don't know Will. With everything going on and what people are saying, I don't think it's a good idea."

He stopped his advances, but didn't move. "It lowers your guard." She looked at him long and hard before she nodded her head. He made a sound of agreement to her confession before leaning into her ear, "Sometimes it's good to lower your guard."

She was quick to respond, but her heart sped at the feeling of his breath on her neck, "Sometimes it is detrimental to the situation."

He pulled back until he could look into her eyes; the blue was beckoning him, "Point taken." Before he could draw back further her other hand snaked up to his neck and pulled his lips to meet hers. She drew in a deep breath as their skin collided and leaned back pulling him further into her body. His fingers found her hip and dug into the flesh and material there before he backed away from her. She was smiling when he looked at her. Her tongue dashed out to wet her lips as her eyes danced in front of him. "What was that for?"

She only shrugged and tilted her head to the side. "Point taken, William." He half chuckled and shook his head; she could be ridiculous some times. He leaned in to press a chaste kiss on her lips but she had other ideas. Opening her mouth she let her tongue dash out to taste him, it sent tingles from his mouth throughout his entire body and his lips parted in response.

Her tongue slid into him as her hand reached up to cup the back of his head. His fingers moved from her waist to her back pulling her body into his. She bumped into him and he stumbled backwards at the unexpected force, but their lips never left each other. Their fingers unlocked from each other and his made way into her hair, pulling the curls to her back as he massaged her scalp.

She pulled away from him smiling when she heard the throat clear in the doorway. Stepping away but not too far to feign embarrassment she saw her oldest friend was looking on at the two of them judging reactions. Magnus was grinning like a teenager and Will just looked like a lost boy trying to hide his extremely flushing and blushing cheeks. The Big Guy stifled a laugh with his shoulder when she began to speak, "Hello, dear friend. Something I can help you with?"

"Just bringing afternoon tea." He lifted hands to show her the tray he was carrying.

"Fantastic, would you care to join us Will?" Her hands were clasped together as she made her way to her favorite chair.

"No thanks," he glanced at his watch, "I think I'll go check on John and Sara, she should be waking up soon." She nodded to him as he left and she still couldn't wipe the grin off her face. It wasn't long before John appeared in her office. Her old friend was just finishing his tea when the man sauntered in carrying a glass of swirling brandy in one hand and the sleepy child curled against him in the other.

Helen reached up and the girl slid from John's arms to hers. Sara laid her head against Magnus' chest her face plastering itself to her mother. Sara's fists rubbed at her eyes as her head rolled along Magnus's breast. Helen leaned down and dropped a kiss on the girl's head. "Have a good sleep, darling?" Helen crooned at the child and ran a finger over the girls sleep warm cheek.

Biggie stood grabbing the tray, but leaving her cup and moved out of the room—Druitt made him uncomfortable. Helen watched her friend leave sensing his unease; it would just have to be something he'd have to get used to because she was fairly sure John would be around for a while longer. The man sat on the sofa and spread out, as any man does. His legs stretched, his arm covered the top line of the fabric as he swirled the brandy before taking a sip.

"She's slow to wake," Magnus stated running a hand in circles over the girl's back.

He swallowed another sip slowly; savoring the flavor, Helen always had the best. "Like her mother." Helen looked up at him them, her eyes speaking volumes that he couldn't understand and didn't dare attempt to decipher.

She looked back down at the girl in her arms, "I have a meeting tomorrow with Will; it'll probably take a few hours, would you mind watching her? Would you be comfortable with her by yourself?" She didn't move her eyes back to his face. She didn't think she could look at him right then, with their child in her arms and the emotions flooding through her.

He waited patiently until she finally locked eyes with him, "I would be delighted." Drinking down the last of the brandy he laid the glass of the table between them. "Helen—"

"It's alright John. I do trust you with her."

He paused waiting a beat for her to continue but when she didn't his voice echoed in the room, "You shouldn't."

She looked at him then, her eyes studying his body, his face. "What does that mean?" He gave her an incredulous look and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "You're her father, John; I cannot and will not deny that as I did before."

"Nothing has changed, Helen. I am who I am."

"Stop it, John." Her voice was short and curt. "I know exactly who you are and what you are capable of. I trust you with our daughter. Stop being so self-deprecating, _that_ is not like you." Sara was mostly awake at this point so Magnus stood and placed her in the playpen that had been brought into the room. When she straightened John was directly behind her.

His fingers cupped her cheek and a hand curled around her side. "What has changed? Why am I trustworthy now?"

"John—" His lips cut her off as they glided across hers. She didn't respond when he dragged her body into his. She could feel the hard planes of his flesh and his tepid skin when she moved a hand to his chest and pushed him back. "John. Stop."

He ignored her and moved his mouth to hers again laying soft and sweet kisses over her lips, chin, along her jawline and to her neck. The hand on her cheek moved down her front and over her breast and he squeezed lightly in a teasing manner. Magnus did not take the bait; she waited him out until he pulled away from her to look at her face.

She shook her head. "No, John. I will not go down this road with you again. As you said, nothing has changed."

He stepped back from her at that point to bow his head and body, "Forgive me, Helen." She nodded her agreement and forgiveness to him before moving behind her desk. He grabbed the brandy glass off the table before leaving her office to find the snifter.

* * *

><p>Will was walking with her back to the nursery after a late dinner. Helen was carrying the girl on her front with one arm wrapped under Sara's legs and the other holding her back and head as she dipped Sara down causing the girl to erupt in a fit of giggles. Will grinned with his hand on Magnus' back as she dipped forward again quickly. The result was the same: a fit of giggles from the girl and a mysteriously fantastic smile from the woman.<p>

It felt rather domestic, but only slightly awkward as Magnus changed the girl and swayed with her in her arms trying to get her to fall asleep. Helen was humming a rather simple and very Celtic tune to his surprise, but her eyes were all for the child in her arms. Her hips swayed back and forth as her hand bumped in time on the infant's bottom.

Finally the child was asleep and Magnus laid her gently in the crib. Standing straight she moved over to him as he looked out the window. She used a hand on his hip to turn his body towards her. Leaning in her lips planted on his in a quick and chaste embrace. He chuckled to himself quietly before whispering, "I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much."

She gave him a flirtatious wink before responding, "I don't think I've had this much to smile about in a long while." Leaning forward again she pulled his lower lip into her mouth and suckled gingerly. She moaned quietly as his lips covered hers again; his hands found their way around her and dragged her body into his forcefully. His tongue began a tango with hers as his hands explored her body. She groaned before pulling back and breathing heavily. Grabbing hold of his hand she quickly grabbed the monitor on the changing table and pulled him out of the room and down the halls towards her bedroom.


	6. Chapter 6

Helen took a deep breath to calm down. This conversation was not going in any productive direction and she was only becoming frustrated with the other Head's. Will was standing next to her silently, letting her handle the situation how she saw fit.

"Magnus you cannot ignore the situation." Declan was firm and unwavering in his conviction.

"I'm not—" she stopped as she realized her voice was a force to be reckoned with and sought to lower it. She felt fingers on her arm in reassurance. "I'm not ignoring the situation. I have teams out looking for Whitcomb as we speak, but I cannot ignore the fact that she is my daughter."

"That is exactly our point," Pili spoke. "You are ignoring certain aspects of the situation. Your judgment is being clouded by her mere presence. Action must be taken."

"What does that mean?"

Jephthah finally spoke up, until this point the man had been utterly silent. "We have had a vote. You will remand the girl into the custody of the London Sanctuary; you will also have no contact with the girl in order that her safety and the safety of the network are preserved. Declan will arrive tomorrow morning to retrieve her."

"_Sara_ is my daughter, whether or not I gave birth to her and you have no right—no right to remove her from my care."

"The vote was unanimous, Magnus. You will comply with this directive or you will lose your standing."

"This is ridiculous." She made eye contact with Declan who gave her a wary and fearful look. He had known she would not agree, but had hoped since it was him taking care of the girl that Helen would give in to the Heads' demands.

Pili spoke next, "We don't want this to sound like a threat, Magnus, but we do feel as though you have been compromised and need to rectify that situation. Secondly, the girl needs to be kept secure. We still do not yet know her purpose or the purpose Whitcomb had intended for her use. And quite frankly, after the way you handled Terrence Wexford, we are not sure you can handle this situation."

Magnus only shook her head shoving the tablet in her hands onto a desk and stalked out of the room. She held the radio to her mouth speaking rapidly. "Henry, lower the EM shield immediately." She ran to the nursery where she knew John would be and began packing diapers, clothes, formula and all manner of other necessities into a baby bag and duffle.

"Helen, what is it?" She didn't answer only continued her movements. "Helen. What happened?" Growing frustrated with her silence he set Sara down in the crib before taking hold of Helen's upper arms and turning her to face him. She had tears in her eyes that she was fighting to keep at bay.

"I need you to take her, John. I need you to take her and not come back until I tell you to. Alright?" He nodded in agreement.

"Just tell me what happened."

"There isn't time, I need you to hide; no one is allowed near her except you and me. Understood?"

"Yes." She shoved the duffle at him after zipping it closed and handed him the baby bag. He swung them over his shoulder as she leaned into the crib and picked up her daughter. Kissing her soft skin Helen handed her over to John.

"Take care of her." His head jerked down as he teleported from the room.

"You shouldn't have done that." She took a shuddering breath as she heard his voice from the doorway.

"Don't start, Will." She moved a hand in a sharp motion in front of her body letting out her frustration.

"There will be serious consequences for it."

She only gave him a look; she knew exactly what the consequences were going to be. She was going to be removed as head of the Sanctuary network and most likely as Head of House in Old City as well. Declan would arrive in the morning and throw a fit and she did not want to deal with Will and his problems in the meantime.

Shoving past him she made for the door, but he was faster and slammed it shut, barely missing her fingers. "What were you thinking?"

"She is my daughter, Will. I will not have her imprisoned or experimented on because of the nature surrounding her birth. She deserves better than that."

"So you send her off with the Ripper? Oh that's so much better than sending her with Declan."

"I don't need your approval."

"No, you don't Magnus, but you do need to have faith in those that work for you."

She stopped at that. Looking him directly in the eye, "I do have faith in you, Will. More than you can ever know. This, however, is not an issue for the Heads of House to even discuss, it is a private matter."

"No, this one is not. This one warrants discussion, no matter the actions decided, which should have included your input, but this is a matter that needs discussion with the Heads. The Cabal were thought to be done, over, a dead organization and now we find out that their leader isn't really dead. This girl, your daughter, Sara: shouldn't be alive. Face it—she is a miracle and a paradox. What are you supposed to do with her? They were right about one thing; you cannot ignore the entire situation, Magnus."

She gave him a lasting look before bristling past him and out the door that was no longer being blocked. He had said his part; he had got her thinking that was all he needed. Will returned to his office to work on paperwork and attempt to take his mind off her. Magnus worked through the night putting all her files in order for Will. She would try to help him as much as possible by doing this before she lost her standing.

After finishing everything in the office she moved to the lab to work on some long overdue research, she was still there when Declan arrived. She would let Will handle the situation with him and hide out in her lab until Declan sought her. She was in no mood to deal with him even though she wasn't one for standing down or hiding when in the line of fire.

* * *

><p>Declan found her with her face in a microscope, her hair falling around her face. "You didn't have to do that you know." She didn't answer, only continued to look at the slide she had prepared. He was very quiet when he spoke, he didn't want to be angry with her. He actually understood her choices; Watson had been kind enough to enlighten him in the ways of Helen Magnus before passing on. "Sara would have been safe with me."<p>

"You can't guarantee that." She didn't dare look at him. Switching slides she moved back to the microscope.

"And Druitt can?"

She did look at him then; he looked tired, his eyes swollen from lack of sleep. "He would never harm her."

"Druitt wouldn't, no." He agreed readily. "But the creature? I'm not so sure. Do you trust him to keep it at bay?"

She thought deeply, attempting to reason out her decision. "Yes, but only where it concerns her."

"Not even you?" She shook her head. "Even James thought John could never harm you and I believe Tesla agreed with him on the matter."

She shrugged and quietly spoke, "What is unknown to them never hurts anyone."

Declan gave her an odd look before changing the subject, she didn't want to continue and he wasn't about to ask her to. "Come on then, it's time for afternoon tea. Will kept me busy far too long this morning." He held out his arm for her.

"I thought you would be angry with me." She slid up to him and hooked her arm through his.

"Can't say I didn't expect something like this, although Will believes I'm furious."

She patted his hand lightly, "We'll just let him think that." She paused, "I've written my resignation." He looked at her in shock. "You knew it would happen one day. It's just happening sooner than we thought."

"You don't have to do this. They aren't going to relieve you, even though that's how it sounded."

"I know, but I think it's time. You are next in line; I've requested that I stay a week to finish this week's paperwork that I have here and send the rest to you from now on. Will can take over for me here, he's ready for it. I would like to stay on and be able to continue my research and contribute where I can."

"I'm sure that can be arranged. Don't you think you'll miss it though?"

"Yes, I will. Maybe when everything calms down I'll start leading again."

* * *

><p>She was lying quietly in his warm embrace running fingers over his chest in a post-sexual haze. Her fingers moved, but her mind and heart were not in the caress. Will was staring at the ceiling, one hand around her shoulders and the other behind his head. She was being distant. It wasn't a sudden withdrawal as he had expected, but gradual and slow over the past few weeks. She found herself lingering less and less in the lab and more often than not she could be found on the north tower or in her rooms with a book in hand. What this woman must be going through, to have one daughter taken in death and the other forced away in life. Not the loss of one daughter, but two: even though they were one in the same.<p>

"She's probably walking by now." He knew she was referring to Sara, but he had nothing to give her to make the loneliness and hurt go away.

Instead, he decided to try and lighten the mood, "Probably running circles around Druitt at this point." It was in reference to Ashley's feistiness, they both knew it, but let the comment hang in the stagnant air for moments on end.

"Ashley used to do that." He waited for her to continue and to his surprise, she did. "When she wanted my attention, or had learned something she was really excited about, or even when she found something she knew she shouldn't have discovered. She taught Henry how to do it." She smiled into his chest and he looked down to catch the pleasure on her face. "Try having a conversation with the UN liaison with two children running in circles around your desk. I found it amusing. The UN liaison I was speaking with, however, did not."

His fingers found their way into her hair and curled the locks over his fingers. "Henry must miss her more than I realized."

"Yes, but I think with Ashley gone he's been able to grow up a little more. Even though he was older, she definitely played the role of overbearing and protective sister in his life. Like when his first girlfriend cheated on him. Ashley went and broke the poor girl's nose."

"I thought you didn't condone violence, Helen." He teased.

"Condone, no. But appreciate, yes. After Ashley was done being grounded she took Henry out for a night of clubbing. I refused to let them sleep in the next morning much to their dislike. Needless to say, neither was happy with me for weeks but that night helped lift Henry's spirits dearly." He waited out the silence, trying to imagine what it would have been like to grow up here, with Magnus. He probably wouldn't be lying naked in her bed for starters, but it also might have been a much more pleasant upbringing, at least far more adventurous.

"She probably won't even recognize me when I see her next." Her voice was soft again.

Will dropped a kiss on her head, "I'm sure she will, Druitt has a picture of you and I'm fairly certain he will show it to her."

"He doesn't have a picture of me, Will, don't be absurd. The man burned them all the night I gave back the ring."

"Interesting, but I know for a fact that Druitt has a picture of you." She lifted her head away from his skin to look him in the eye. Silently she compelled him to continue and explain. "Ashley saw it, before she met you in Rome. It was one of the few things that convinced her he was telling the truth."

"You're serious." He nodded in response. Laying her head back down she spoke, "Bloody Hell, he would keep one wouldn't he?" The question was rhetorical, not to be answered by a man who barely knew her. They let the quiet wash over them, allowing their bodies to succumb to sleep.

* * *

><p>Four months had passed, with no new information on the Cabal and no leads on the whereabouts of Dana Whitcomb. The Heads of House were worried about Declan, claiming he was beginning to flounder in his responsibilities. Traveling to London was not on her priority list, but Declan had practically begged for help and the Heads of House had insisted she would be allowed. Perhaps they were frustrated with his floundering and only wanted to find the quickest solution. Still not feeling as though it was the time for her to enter back into the political world of the Sanctuary she agreed that it would do more harm than good if she remained at home.<p>

She was just arriving on the landing strip when John teleported into the plane with her. "Something's wrong." Were the first and only words out of his mouth.

"What do you mean? What happened?" He was alone; Sara was not in sight as Helen stood up and walked over to him. She held his arm as he swayed in order to steady him.

"Lower the EM shield in London." She nodded not thinking and only acting. Grabbing hold of her phone she called Declan and made the arrangements as he teleported out of the machine. She hung up just as John teleported back, only his arm materialized as he grabbed hold of her hand and moved them both.


	7. Chapter 7

She opened her eyes to see the infirmary set out before her. John was already laying Sara on the cot, her small body flailing and convulsing. Acting quickly, as her years of experience had taught her, Magnus began shouting out orders. She injected the girl with a paralytic and her seizures slowed to a halt. She took her pulse with one hand before glaring at John. "What happened?"

"I don't know; this is the worst it's been."

"What do you mean the worst it's been?"

He looked at her pointedly, "You told me not to come to you."

"Bloody hell, John, you could have come for this."

"It's not like I didn't take her to see doctors."

"Abnormal doctors?"

"A few."

Which meant no, or only one, in his book. Leaning over the still form of her daughter she ran her fingers over her face. She looked like she was about seven or eight—she had missed a lot. "When did it start?"

John pursed his lips, "I started to notice it almost right away. The seizures were small though, nothing that couldn't be handled with medication." She waited patiently for him to continue, "They gradually became worse. This is the seventh one like this she has had, but this time she wouldn't stop."

"How long was she seizing?"

"Five, maybe ten minutes."

Helen shook her head and drew in a breath. "This is not good, John." He didn't answer her, he knew it wasn't. Helen hooked the girl up to monitors and inserted an IV into her hand. It was always easier to put it in the hand on a child, they would be able to move more—at least that's what Ashley had told her. Drawing blood carefully from her other arm, Helen made for the labs sure that Declan had already been informed of the situation and was leaving her to focus.

John stayed with his daughter until she woke up from the drugs her mother had given her. Her eyes opened slowly fluttering shut at the harsh light she found. John leaned over her then, his hand running over the girls face, "Sara, wake up, it's ok love." He saw her gorgeous blue eyes then, the same as her mother's staring at her.

"Daddy?"

"It's ok, my sweet. You just needed some help so I brought you to see Mommy." He leaned down as kissed the precious girls forehead, "Just rest for now, she'll be in later to visit with you."

"When, Daddy?" The excitement in her voice could not be contained and she tried to sit up. John leaned in and helped push pillows behind the girls back so she wouldn't exert so much energy. It was amazing how children could bounce back, but seizures were one thing that people were said to recover from quickly.

"She working right now, but she'll be by soon, I promise."

The girl squealed in anticipation before looking around. John sat down on the stool next to the bed, his hand not leaving his daughters leg. "Where are we?" Her voice was cautious, they had moved around a lot in the little time she had lived, but she had never seen this place.

"London."

"That's where you and Mommy met." He smiled and nodded. "Daddy, where's, um…" she put her hand to her mouth in thought, a gesture that she must get from her mother because he certainly never did it. Sara was working very hard to think of the name, but she couldn't seem to pull it from her memory so she substituted, "your friend."

Knowing his daughter as well as he did, John was able to pick up on her line of thought. "James?" Sara nodded suddenly and then stopped immediately, her head becoming dizzy. Passing the girl a worried glance, he let her deal with the new situation. "He's not here Sara."

"Well Daddy, where is he then?" John was saved by the door when he heard it open and the telltale clicks of her heels as she made her way to them. John was blocking the entrance to the infirmary with his body so Sara didn't see Helen and likewise until the woman was steps from the bed. Turning, John looked up at the woman who had her head buried in their daughter's medical chart. Her hair was pulled back loosely behind her head, but there was an errant strand that curled its way down her cheek. John wanted desperately to brush it away and behind her ear, but when Helen looked up to see the girl sitting before her, the shock in her eyes begged him not to.

Helen was struck by the exact similarity that this girl had to Ashley. It was like she was staring at her daughter dressed in a hospital gown after getting into a wrestling match with Henry and falling down the entryway stairs breaking her arm and splitting her lip open. Or when Ashley got too close to Chuck and his other half lashed out at her slicing her arm with a hidden weapon. Or when Ashley fell out of a tree that she had been dared to climb and sliced up her entire leg causing a great bloody and crying mess.

Helen stood, silent staring at the girl in front of her, images of Ashley flashing through her brain. The girl lifted her face up to see the woman she had been waiting to meet and cried, "Mommy!" She was completely oblivious to the turmoil her mother was experiencing.

Helen turned immediately right around and walked out the room. She stopped on the other side of the doorway leaning against the wall breathing heavily. The tears were leaking from her eyes as she shut the lids tight trying to keep them in, throwing her head back hoping to allow gravity to bring the salty drops back into her eyes. John was before her in seconds grabbing her shoulders and dragging her tense body into his chest. He rubbed her back in a soothing manner whispering soft words into her hair. She started to gasp as breathing became harder and harder with the force of her sobs. She couldn't breathe; her body shook as it dragged in as much air as was possible. John pushed her away from her, moving his face directly in front of hers, "Helen, I need you to breathe. Come on now."

She only shook her head, trying to calm down but failing miserably. "I—I can't." Her eyes flashed to the door, she meant breathe and go back in that room. Both were impossible for her at the moment.

"Helen, focus. Focus on me." His hands slid up to cover her cheeks forcing her face to look at him. Her chest started to calm in its abrasive rising and her eyes continued to lock with his for longer periods of time. When he felt she was wound down enough, he let go of her soft skin and stood straight stretching his back muscles.

"Sorry."

"Don't be." She watched his face closely; she did love this man, his kindness. This was John, the man she had fallen in love with, the one who had destroyed her heart all those years ago. "She needs you, Helen, she needs a mother."

Helen shook her head, "I can't…" She watched the door carefully as if she was waiting for it to explode and bring this entire chaotic situation to an end. But she knew that wouldn't happen. She knew she was going to have to walk into that room and talk to that child. The child she had already raised and yet had not. Slowing drawing air into her lungs until she was standing straight she looked back at the man before her, "Alright." Stepping away from him she made it to the entrance of the infirmary and placed her palm on the metal knob, twisting slowly, biding as much time as possible until she was face to face with a living ghost.

Walking into the room, Helen could see that the girl was playing with a ragdoll talking to her as if the doll were her own child, caressing and petting the fabric face. Her eyes glanced up to meet Helen's and immediately she looked back down at the toy in her lap with a sour look crossing her features. This could easily become a problem for the woman. "Hello Sara," her voice was soft and lilting as she moved to the side of the bed. "Mind if I sit?" The girl didn't answer so Helen scooted slowly onto the bed, giving the child time to object. "She's beautiful, what's her name?"

Ashley had never really found an interest in dolls or babies; Helen's old friend and kept the children fairly busy running around and helping him with the abnormals. She supposed a normal life outside the Sanctuary would have allowed for this in Ashley. "Beth." The child's words were held tightly.

Running a finger under a blonde wave of hair Helen quickly resigned to apologizing, "I'm sorry Sara. I didn't mean to frighten or worry you."

The girl held the hand of the doll tightly in her fist, fiddling with the fabric she found there. "It's ok, Daddy said you might cry."

"Well, Daddy was right." Brushing the hair behind the girl's ear, the woman leaned away only to find John standing next to her, his chest now brushing her back and shoulder. She looked up at him and he could see the tears in her eyes.

"You don't love me… because of Ashley."

"No, no, no. I love you sweetie, I love you very much." Her hand reached out to the child's causing the girl to look up at her face. "I love you. I'm just sad because of Ashley." Sara nodded in understanding, but she didn't know what to do, especially when her mother leaned forward and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Because she died?"

Helen nodded, the tears returning and slipping over and down her cheeks. "Yes." A whisper, breathed as a prayer. "Yes, because she died." Helen hadn't expected John to tell the girl about Ashley, especially when he hadn't been a part of their first daughter's life. "But I love you, don't ever forget that." The girl gave a slight smile and crawled into Helen's lap throwing her arms around the woman's neck and smashing her face against her skin.

"I love you too Mommy." Helen began to rock back and forth holding the small girl in her arms. She looked up at John who placed a hand on her back in silent support.

Waiting a few moments until the tension in the room began to disperse, Helen finally spoke to the girl. "I need to take some of your blood is that okay?" The child nodded her head and held her arm out. Helen brushed her fingers over the soft skin.

"Looking for scars?" His voice was deep and close to her ear, he hadn't wanted their daughter to hear.

"In a manner of speaking; rather, looking for the lack of them." Smiling to the girl, she leaned over to grab a needle off a nearby tray and began to draw the blood. Her phone buzzed in her pocket as she placed the cap back on the medical instrument. Pulling the phone out she saw that it was Will, she should probably take it. Looking up to find John staring at her curiously, she shrugged, "Home." Placing the child back on the bed she stood and walked out into the hallway with the phone in one hand the sample in the other.

Sliding the virtual unlock on the screen she placed it to her ear, "Hello."

"Hey, everything ok? Declan said there was an emergency."

She hummed and pushed her tongue into her cheek, "It's Sara; she's having seizures."

"Do you know why yet?"

"I think it's a reaction to the genetic tampering, but according to John they keep getting worse as she ages. I just took another sample and I'll be sure when I run a few more tests."

"Alright then, I'll let you get to it."

But she didn't want to hang up, she wanted to keep talking to him because he was a calming force to be reckoned with and after seeing a living ghost of Ashley she really needed the grounding. "What's been going on there? Nothing serious I hope."

"Uh…" he paused wondering why she wanted to continue a conversation, but he would oblige her. "Henry went into anaphylactic shock last night when he was trying to feed the nubbins. I think his allergies to them are beyond the _working around_ phase. I've arranged to have all the nubbins transferred to New York."

"Good, good. I should have done that ages ago."

"It's fine they'll be gone in a few days, just waiting for Kate to get back from Mexico to make the arrangements to try and leave Henry out of the loop."

"Good idea on that. How's he doing?"

"Missing his regular doctor—he says the Big Guy hurts when he gives shots."

She smiled at that, "Well tell him that I'll have my old friend be his regular doctor if it makes Henry more cooperative with me."

Will smirked at that as Henry reached for the phone and tore it from his hands, "It's only blood and needles, that's it Doc. I swear you can do anything else you want to me just no blood and no needles."

"I'm sure Henry, but it seems you squirm with everything, always have and you always will." She grinned as she could see him and Will fighting over the phone as they were walking down a hallway or possibly sitting in the library or Will's office. "Glad you're well, Henry." She called out, knowing full well that if she was heard it was probably not by Henry.

"I'll tell him when he escapes his new assignment." Will glared at Henry who was standing away from him. "How's Declan?"

"I haven't seen him yet, actually. I've been busy in the lab."

"That bad?"

"Whatever gives you that idea?"

"If it weren't that bad you would have emerged for tea or food, and without the Big Guy to bring it to you that means you've gone without eating for almost an entire day now."

She huffed at the comment; she'd eaten, right? "I don't know what you are referring to." She was teasing him and that was good sign, her shoulders and muscles were relaxing and her chest was losing its constrictive quality.

"Yeah sure, Magnus." She could almost see him rolling his eyes. He took a deep breath and shooed Henry out of his office, shutting the door behind the man's retreating form. He was quiet when he spoke, not quite sure where he stood with her but he still felt the need to speak. "I miss you; it's lonely around here without you."

She smiled and looked down at the vial in her hand hiding her eyes from anyone who might see. She missed him too, but she was above telling him that. He would be able to infer it from her silence—at least she hoped he would. "I should be home soon." Just in case he didn't understand the quiet pause she gave. "And I've only been gone for two days."

"I know, I just got used to you hanging around with nothing to do I guess. Not running all over the world anymore."

She rolled her eyes as an answer, even though he couldn't see it. "I have to get back to the lab, few more tests to run and all that." She was uncomfortable with where the conversation was heading; he knew it and she knew it. It was the most he would ever get out of her and he expected nothing more.

"Alright. I'll see you soon."

"Goodbye, Will." Pulling the phone away from her ear she ended the call, her eyes lingering on the screen with a smile gracing her lips. That had been a good choice for her, she was glad she had allowed herself the pleasure of becoming his lover. Now onto the labs she needed to run. She set the sequences to run and decided to head upstairs to the kitchens, just to prove that the situation was not as dire as it seemed to be.

* * *

><p>She had finished running the tests by early evening. Her conclusion was that the seizures were indeed caused by the genetic manipulation that Whitcomb had performed and that sadly there was little Helen could do, except medicate the child correctly and heavily. She had made the necessary prescriptions and had given them to the Doctor the London Sanctuary employed, neatly avoiding the tiny and confining infirmary and making her way to Declan's office.<p>

He was sitting at his desk with stacks and stacks of paperwork overflowing from the wood to the floor and to the bookshelves. It was almost comical in the amount of work that was piled around him. "Honestly, Declan, I don't know how you get any work done in here."

He grinned looking up at her, "Well, if I wasn't just a human, it would probably all be done by now."

"Nonsense," her lips quirked in response, "you just need to learn to delegate."

"I thought that's what I was doing when I brought you here." He stood and grabbed a stack of papers and dropped them heavily into her waiting arms. "I don't have a protégé, you're it."

She frowned slightly in response before moving to a nearby couch and coffee table to begin. "Perhaps you should get one," She stated absently.

"Ah, love, that's what you are."

She snorted, "Hardly. Going from head of the network to an underling, I'm far more valuable than that." She opened a file and began reading. "This is from three weeks ago!" He could hear the disappointment seething from between her teeth.

"Yeah, I know, got a bit behind."

"Obviously." The conversation died away as both focused on the work at hand. Magnus easily finishing twice as much work as the man who was in charge, but she didn't mind. It was actually rather relaxing to have a mundane task to keep her occupied.

* * *

><p>Within two days Magnus had Declan caught up on all his paperwork and had diverted a '<em>major crisis'<em> between him and the Heads of House. Sara had not had a seizure in two days, which according to John was a record. She was planning on telling him to leave that night, before the Heads had a chance to regroup; Declan had kindly not spoken about the entire situation and had not submitted his report either, in order to buy her a little more time. Helen had not been down to visit Sara since she had first arrived. She was not avoiding, she was only busy helping in another capacity. At least that's what she told herself. Will told her blatantly that she was evading which she pointedly denied. John had not left Sara's side since arrival, thus she had not seen him either.

Helen was wandering around her old home in the middle of the night as was her custom when she heard a noise behind her. She was just leaving the second level of the residential wing when she spun around to find Sara standing with sleep filled eyes, blanket and doll in hand staring at her. Taking a deep breath and moving her hand away from the gun she had reached for, Helen let her voice take on a tender quality. "Sara, love, is everything alright?"

Sara shook her head vigorously and began crying. The woman and the girl had a stand-off; Helen desperately wanted to go to her, but couldn't bring her body, her legs to cooperate with what her brain was screaming at them to do. Finally her knees collapsed under the confused signals and Helen came to be level with the child who rushed forward in an instant to be encompassed in her mother's warm embrace. Helen stroked the girl's hair and back soothing the sobbing child, pressing lips to her cheek and head. Hiccupping, Sara spoke, "I had—" Hiccup, "a bad dream." Hiccup. "And I couldn't—" Hiccup, "find Daddy." A little warning bell went off in the back of Helen's head, but her first priority was to calm the child. John could have simply stepped out to catch his breath for a moment, God knows, he had been catering to the child every waking second.

"It's alright, darling," Helen leaned back to look the girl in the eyes. She looked so much like the two of them, her and John; there was no denying that the girl was theirs. "Want to stay with me tonight?" Sara nodded her head and Helen picked up the small form placing the girl on her hip and wrapping arms securely around her while Sara rested her face on her mother's shoulder drawing in her scent.

Sara tucked her dolly into her chest and made a grab for Helen's dark locks. "You had yellow hair in the picture."

Helen was only slightly taken aback before she could formulate a reply. "I colored it." She began to move towards the stairs that would take her to her rooms. The girl would be too big for her to do this for much longer, but Helen was secretly enjoying having her child so close again. Sara's own hair was blonde and a curly mess the way Helen's own had been as a child and Ashley's before they grew older. Ashley's had straightened out when she decided to cut it all off, shaved the hair down to a mere inch before letting it grow out again. Helen's had stayed curly, but had also kept it long her entire life, although the tightness of the curls had diminished with time.

Helen had made it to her rooms during her musings and Sara had most certainly calmed, but she wasn't about to give up this opportunity. She pulled down the covers and slid the child into them before tucking her in. "I'll be right back; I'm just going to get changed." Brushing a finger over the girl's cheek Helen quickly dressed into silk nightclothes before slipping in next to her daughter.

Sara turned on her side, still clutching her blanket and dolly close and looked at her mother. "Daddy says he likes you better with yellow hair."

"Really? Why's that?"

"He says that I look more like you then." Helen imperceptibly shuddered at that. She could imagine John saying just that. She didn't answer the girl, only waited for her to continue or fall into slumber. "Do you love Daddy?"

Helen pressed a kiss to the child's forehead, giving her time to formulate a response, she could lie, easily, but she had made the decision not to. "Yes."

Sara was playing with the locks of her hair again, her fingers gently twirling the softness around her fingers, only tugging accidentally and on occasion. "Then why don't you live with us."

Taking a deep breath Helen asked, "What does your father say?"

"That he hurt you."

"He did."

"That he loves you."

"He does."

"Did Daddy not tell you sorry? For hurting you?"

Could it really be that simple? In the eyes of a child, perhaps it could. Had John apologized for everything? No he had not, but would she accept his apology even if he did? She had no idea, either way she would never be with him in that manner again. What to tell Sara? Her voice was soft and breathy when she answered in truth, "No he didn't." It only became stronger when Helen fought to change the subject. "Why don't you rest, darling? Close your weary eyes, I'm right here, I won't leave." Sara nodded, but didn't close her eyes. She eventually drifted off to sleep because of exhaustion, as did her mother hours later.


	8. Chapter 8

Helen awoke to a face pressed into her shoulder and a body tightly wound around her arm holding her just below the elbow and her hand. Sara was lying diagonally across the bed, Helen squished to one side while her daughter took over the rest, her feet practically touching the opposite edge with almost all the blankets wrapped around her tiny form. Sara was deep in sleep, but Helen had to get up, she was supposed to leave late in the morning and be home by dinner, of which she was planning on sharing with Will. However, John had left, _couldn't be found_, as her daughter had put it the previous night. Where on Earth could he have gone?

She tried to slip her arm away from the girl, but to no avail she was stuck. Sara had quite a grip. Not really wanting to wake her, but finding no other option, Helen began to stroke the girl's cheek attempting to bring her into consciousness. "Sara, darling, it's time to wake up." The girl shook her head, her nose rubbing deep into Helen's shoulder and made a negative sound in her throat. "Sara, love, I have to get going."

Sara sat straight up at that, "Don't leave."

Helen leaned up, bracing one hand behind her and letting the other caress the soft skin of her offspring. "I need to get dressed and do some work before I leave; I'm needed at home." Sara looked like she was going to burst into tears, but she just nodded her head and grabbed for her dolly. "Come on then, I'll make you a breakfast that I bet your father never let you have."

Sara perked up at that. "Daddy says we have to eat 'hearty breakfasts.'" Sara tried to imitate John and failed miserably, but it was adorable to say the least.

Helen giggled, "I'm sure he does." Leaning over she kissed Sara quickly before extracting herself from the mass of tangled blankets. Dressing, Helen couldn't believe that Sara woke so quickly—she was currently jumping excitedly on the bed as her mother sat down in front of the vanity.

Sara stopped suddenly giving the woman an odd look that Helen didn't miss in the reflection of the mirror. "What are you doing?"

"Putting on makeup." Sara's nose wrinkled slightly, but she hopped off the bed, her nighty brushing her ankles as she made her way over. She watched with curious eyes as Helen patted concealer via a wet sponge smoothing the color over her cheeks and neck, brow and eyelids. Sara poked a finger at one of the things on the counter.

"What's that?"

It was a squat and small container containing a black gel in it, "Eyeliner." At the quizzical look she received, Helen continued, "Here watch." She drew up a tiny brush and dipped it into the gel coating both sides equally. Pulling her lid down with her other hand, Helen swiped the brush along her lash leaving a dark and straight line. "See, it's not so hard." She did her other eye quickly before glancing at the girl again, she could read the thoughts or rather, sole thought, running through her brain as the child's finger played with the mascara, rolling it over and over. She wanted to play makeup, something Ashley had never been interested in. "Do you want—" Sara was nodding her head vigorously before Helen could even finish. "Here this is more your color I think."

Picking up a dark blue eye liner, Helen swept it quickly over the girl's eyes beckoning her to close the lids. Placing some silvery shadow above the liner and swiping the mascara brush through her lashes and sat back. "Beautiful." Sara climbed into Helen's lap to look in the mirror grinning at her reflection. Helen smiled and kissed her cheek, pulling the girl's shoulders until she was standing again. "I'm almost finished, and then we can get you dressed and breakfast." Finishing the routine readily she grabbed Sara's hand and made for the child's room, there was still no sign from John.

Helen poured the containments of the box into the bowl, Sara watching with wide eyes at the colorful circles spilling into the white porcelain. "Fruit loops, one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast." Helen reached to the side and began pouring milk into the bowl before she made herself one as well. Sara took a tentative first bite, but with the smile that resulted Helen was sure she had a winner.

Finishing up they made their way to Declan's office so Magnus could finish her duties with him. Sara was clinging to Helen's leg the entire time the adults were talking; her face was buried in the woman's skirt and her tiny hands cleaved tightly to the fabric she found there. Helen left her hand on the girl's head, stroking her hair. Apparently Sara was shy, which was something she had not been with her mother at all. "Have you seen John?" The Head of House shook his head in response and she paused before she attempted her next request. "Can you make the medical usages disappear? Since no one has seen him and he's obviously not here, I'm going to take Sara with me."

Her unspoken request was quite clear; she wanted to keep this entire situation off the radar of the Network. He nodded sharply because he had known this was coming. "Already done."

He surprised her. She wasn't used to relying on people, when she had been Head of the Network she would have been able to do this all by herself, but now that she was reduced to a mere scientist she had to trust in these people. "Thank you." The look she gave him was one of great sincerity, "Come, love, let's go home." Helen turned to leave with her daughter who still hadn't moved her face from her mother's hip.

"Magnus…" He wanted to ask, to make her think about it, but was it his place? Hell, she needed to be considerate in this matter. "Have you talked to Will, about your recent decision?" At her look, he knew her answer. "You should,_ before _your arrive in Old City." She ignored him and turned to leave with daughter in tow—she really should call him, but what was she going to say? "They were going to give it back to you, Magnus, the network. Or at least they were going to let us work together on a more permanent basis."

She turned her head at him in question, "Advise on two fronts? So unlike you, Declan."

The man shrugged, "James said you always admired forwardness."

Pausing for a moment to consider what Declan had said and what her own response would be her voice finally sounded. "James was correct in his assessment." Untangling Sara from her leg Helen moved forward quickly and kissed Declan on the cheek before leaving his office and the London Sanctuary.

Sara had never been on a plane before, but with the confines of a small compartment, even on Magnus' private jet and her energetic excitement caused her to crash somewhere over the Atlantic. Unfortunately they had to make a stop to refuel the airplane before they would reach home. Luckily being on a privately owned jet had its perks and they were only laid over for half an hour, in which time Sara awoke with more questions and unrestrained enthusiasm.

The two arrived in Old City just before the evening meal; the car had arrived with her old friend driving readily through the streets until they could see the front gates. He hadn't said one word to her, until they were inside the front door, his voice was low and in Helen's ear so she was the only one to hear him, "Should have called." Helen ignored him and made to her rooms, bringing hers and Sara's bags to the respective sleeping quarters.

Will and she had not spoken for two days about anything of consequence. Anytime he had gone to see her, Sara was present and he hadn't felt comfortable talking to Magnus in front of the girl. After the first day of stopping by her office multiple times, Will had given up and taken up residence in his office, hiding away from the problems. She had purposefully left him out of the loop, not telling him what had happened to change the circumstances surrounding Sara.

Whether she had done it because she was the girl's mother and really thought that no further input of his was necessary or because she was not used to having someone else in her life where that input might occur he didn't know. She could be very unapologetic in her actions, finding that with her many years of experience in life and leadership she needn't make nice with everyone. Yet this is something he would have thought deserved his input, or at least a forewarning on what was happening. It miffed him, really, that she could be so inconsiderate of him at times.

Magnus knocked on his office door late in the morning of the fourth day of their strained silence. It had taken her this long just to even convince Sara to leave her for a few hours. The first thing she had done was take a long hot shower, alone; she reveled in the steaming water and the personal time she had been allowed. Secondly, on her list was this _lovely_ discussion she needed to have with Will. Their relationship had become strained at best and nonexistent at worst: friendship wise and romantic.

It took him a moment to look up from his computer screen to see her in the doorway, his face revealing nothing about his thundering heart and clenching stomach muscles. He was not happy that this conversation was going to take place, but it was one they needed to have. The silence strained on for minutes: Helen in the doorway and Will at his desk, fidgeting with a pen. It was she who broke the quiet and tension filled atmosphere. "I'm sorry."

It was rare she ever apologized and rarer still that she explained exactly what it was for, but he felt he needed one, deserved clarification. "For what exactly?" He really wanted to continue on, to list the disgraces she should be sorry for, but his lips remained tightly squeezed together.

Her spine stiffened in reaction, she hadn't expected this hostility from him, but maybe she should have. Her eyes flicked to the floor only momentarily before focusing on his face. "For putting this responsibility and stress on you, having her here will cause many problems between you and the Network and I apologize for placing you in the middle." He remained silent and seated in his chair, pen still clutched between his fingers. She remained stoically in the doorway looking at him, uncomfortable in the threshold, the no-mans-land that they had created.

That was not the answer he had been hoping for. She was still avoiding and easily enough, it had been something of a habit for her in life. The silence between then was beginning to take over again. Shaking his head to himself Will finally spoke, "You know what, screw this." His frustration and determination spoke volumes, "Do you want to be in a relationship with me? And be honest, Magnus, because I'm tired of playing games."

What was it with people being pointed with her lately: first Declan, her old friend and now this? Tears sprang unbidden into her eyes and she turned her head to hide them. Leaning she braced her hand on the doorknob, her eyes locked with his in an instant, the unshed salt drop still clinging. "I'm sorry," she whispered softly before pulling the door shut and moving away from the room.

As soon as he had seen her closing the door he dropped the offending office supply and pushed back in his chair, rising. This conversation was not going to end there. He pulled the door open and stalked out to find her still walking. His voice boomed in the quiet, "That is not an answer, Helen." She turned and his feet carried his body over to her. Grabbing her arms he thrust her back against the wall, her head collided with the stone causing her neck to bounce awkwardly. She winced as the pain sliced through her skull and shut her eyes tight against the flash of John doing exactly the same, but no. John had a knife. Will never carried a weapon within the Sanctuary walls and certainly wouldn't be one for choosing steel.

When she lifted her lids he saw fear in her eyes before she quickly masked it. Letting go of her arms, he took a tentative step backwards, giving her time and space to compose. He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off. She had seen his reaction, knew he had seen hers. "It's alright Will, just a moment." He again opened his mouth to object, it had not been alright, but she spoke first and changed to a more comfortable subject. "The answer is yes."

He quieted; his body and his mind waiting for the rebuttal. She didn't speak further, only remained plastered against the stone cold wall with her muscles tense and her eyes watching him closely. Will didn't move, he wanted to run hands over his face, wanted to shove his fingers deep into his pockets, but he feared that any movement from him, sudden or otherwise, and she would be fleeing down the corridors. He had gotten his answer, but instead of proceeding with this new line, he questioned. "Who?"

She let the beats pass along with a choked sob. He knew the answer, but he wanted to hear her say it, so she acquiesced. "John." A great force of air escaped his lips that he didn't know had been harboring in his chest.

"Ok." He moved closer to her and repeated himself, "Ok." Reaching a hand up to caress her cheek and flitted the hair away from her face. She leaned into the warmth, letting her eyes drift closed, "You do know—"

"I know," she nodded vigorously before he could even think about completing the statement. "It was just a moment, hasn't happened in many years."

"Do you know why it happened now?" The psychiatrist in him was taking over, but he couldn't help it, this revelation of his and confession of hers changed far too much.

She looked at him directly, "Yes," her hand covered his that was still resting against her face, "but neither of us is ready for an explanation so just leave it be." He agreed with her only because she had revealed far more to him in the past ten minutes about her personal life than in the years he had been working with her.

He wanted to kiss her in order to erase what he had just done, but he dared not. Instead he rushed an apology on his breath, "I'm sorry, for being so rough."

"Me too. For not calling you to tell you what was going on, I just…didn't know how." He nodded and she pressed into him, her lips gentle and soft against his. When she tilted away from him, her eyes glittered with mischief. He took advantage of her mood change and captured her mouth once again. After moments of enjoying, she bit his lip lightly to gain his attention, "Sara's at the carousel with Henry." She paused and waited for him to catch up to her, "Lunch?" Smiling against his skin when he nodded she pecked his lips before hooking her arm in his and leading the way to the kitchens.

Sara returned giddy and all smiles just as Helen and Will were finishing their meal. She ran into the room with a cotton candy stick and colored sugar stained her lips and chin. Will looked at his watch deciding he needed to go back to work, since Magnus hadn't taken Declan up on his offer of working with him, Will had been had taken that role. He had just increased his workload and needed to get back to the endless amounts of paperwork before he got a nasty phone call. Smiling at the incessant babbling of the girl who was recanting every event since she had left her mother's presence, Will stood to leave and pointed at the door to inform Magnus of his intentions.

She held up a finger for him to wait as she waited for a good place in interrupt Sara. Finally she had gotten the girl to stop talking by asking her to run along and clean her face. Shooing her along, Magnus walked up to the man, and pressed her lips to his quickly. "See you at dinner then?" She entwined their fingers and squeezed lightly.

He tugged her body into his and leaned his mouth close to her ear and whispered, "What about I work through dinner and you make me something special tonight as a reward for finishing all my paperwork?" His other hand reached up to slide down her side.

She giggled against him and planted a sizzling embrace on his lips. When she pulled away, his entire body followed her, not wanting to end it. She was laughing at him flirtatiously.

Sara had stopped at the door to wait for her mom and she was watching them from the doorway. She had never seen her mom like this before, smiling and laughing. Happy, her mom was happy. But she wasn't so sure about him. He hadn't been very nice to her mom since they had gotten here, but he did make her smile.

Helen was still grinning like a schoolgirl when she and Sara and finished cleaning the cotton candy and ice cream from her face and clothes. It was afternoon by the time Helen returned to her office; Sara needed to start some studies and she thought that now would be any time as any. John had taught her how to write and read and count, but he had done little in the way of mathematics, language skills and history. They would have to work hard to catch the girl up, and even harder still because of her rapid growth—she would always be awkward in what she knew compared to her "apparent" age.

Magnus had asked her old friend to work with Sara so that she herself could catch up on some much needed research that she had fallen behind in. All three were in her office, Magnus seated at her desk and her old friend and daughter huddled together on the couch learning how to add. What a sight, if only she had a camera to capture the moment. She glanced back at her monitor when she saw a new email arrive. Clicking it open to read she found a link. Further opening the link a black window popped on the screen before a live image came into focus.

It was her office. The image blurred out of focus as it further zoomed in on the child and abnormal seated a few feet away from her. Glancing up, Helen saw they were in the same position as the camera saw—this was a completely live feed. Quickly her eyes searched the room, before the camera on her screen zoomed in even more to show her daughter's concentrated face.

Words flashed across her monitor, super imposed on the image before her. "Don't get too attached, Helen." They disappeared only for a moment as more blinked forth, "Her first purpose has been served." Again the sentence disappeared and more words took its place, "All that's left is for her to die." Once more. "Then her second purpose will be fulfilled."

Closing the link quickly, Helen stood. "I'll be right back." She stated to the room forcefully before striding as fast as she could without alerting her old friend to her tension. Sara would be safe with him. She moved as quickly as possible to Henry's lab, ordering him instantly to trace the email. With the link no longer active, it was much more difficult for him to complete and would take hours if not days for him to trace the signal. The hacker had been ingenious in method and hiding the trace, but Henry was determined after listening to Magnus recount.

The entire building was set on high alert, mission teams and contacts utilized as best as possible to find more information on the whereabouts of Dana Whitcomb or any Cabal remnant that John and Nikola could have missed. Without learning any new information in the past months, the search for information and people had waned off. She was now going to bring it back full force even if it meant she left her research on solving Sara's exponential growth and seizures on the backburner; this was something that needed to take priority.

It took Henry two and a half days to trace the email and even then he could only trace it back to somewhere in England. Magnus hadn't slept since she before she'd received the video and was preparing to fly back to London to join Declan in the search. She had decided to leave Sara in the capable hands of her colleagues while she went out, but Will had other ideas. He stopped her in her office as she was placing a few manila folders into a small black bag resting on her chair.

"Helen." She stopped at his voice looking up into his face.

She groaned, "Oh this is not going to be good."

He wanted to ask her to sit, she was far less intimidating when she was seated and maybe it would even help her to keep calm concerning what he was about to tell her. He didn't though; instead he remained standing as did she with the desk between them, her hands leaning on the wood finish, his on the chair in front of his legs. "You're not going to London."

Her hand bounced in the air heavily as she fought against the rage blooming rapidly, "_You_ can't tell me what to do."

"Actually, I can. You see when you handed in your resignation as Head of House the responsibility fell to me. Now I am _your_ boss. You are not going to London." She opened her mouth to respond but decided against it; instead she made to grab her back and started around the corner of the desk. Will's fingers closed a circle around her wrist sharply pulling her body to a halt. "I'm serious." Taking a different tack he voiced a new concern, "Sara is not ready to be this long without you. She needs you."

"She will adjust."

"She will adjust easier because you will remain here. This is not a request, Helen." Her fingers let go of the leather handles and her eyes moved from the placement of his fingers, up his arm to his eyes. She would not win this argument. The tears threatened to burst forth again, but she held them in against their will. Tilting her head back she prayed the drops of water would not be able to escape gravity.

Giving up the pretense she moved into his arms allowing him to encircle her. Helen buried her face in his shoulder as the tears broke the dam and spilled forth. He made soothing sounds and rubbed her back in circles as her body shook and trembled. "I'm afraid."

He whispered into her ear, "I know." He dropped a kiss into her dark brown locks. "I know." They stood like that for minutes longer until she heard an alert from the computer behind her. She turned in his arms to make towards the screen. Will followed close behind and made sure to not lose much distance between them. She leaned over and clicked the email open to find another link. Radioing Henry so he would be prepared to trace the signal in order to narrow down the location she double clicked. Will was leaning into her back, a hand on her upper arm showering her with support.

The video this time was of her and Will from moments before, only of him holding her close into his body. "You make me sick." Words sprawled across the screen. Then it changed to the two of them in the hallway from days ago, their lips locked in embrace. "Druitt should have killed you like one of his whores." Then it was the two of them in the infirmary. "You receive a second chance at a daughter and defile her good name." Finally it was of Sara, in the front courtyard with Helen's old friend. Sara was running circles around the Sasquatch as the sun flitted through the girl's curly hair. "You have decided her fate and forced me to take action." Finally the screen went black and closed itself.

Helen only turned her face to look at the man standing close beside her. "We're in trouble."


	9. Chapter 9

"Russia." Henry was so proud of himself that he was smugly grinning when he burst into Magnus' office. "Specifically Moscow and it only took me fifteen hours this time!"

Magnus looked up from braiding Sara's hair and stopped Henry with a look before he spoke any more. She did not want Sara to be worried and thus was keeping a tight lid on what the girl knew. "Sara, why don't you get see if Will needs any help with the feedings today?" The girl nodded gleefully and left the room at a skip—it hadn't taken her long since she finally opened up to Biggie to begin to open to everyone else in her mother's life: in particular, the man in her mother's life.

"Sorry, Doc." She waved off the apology and motioned for him to continue. "Ok, so it's coming from Moscow, but I haven't had time to narrow it down any further than that. It could be coming from the city or just outside of it."

"Alright, I want you to analyze the video more and try to figure out exactly how they are hacking into our systems. That last one means they've been doing it for months. I have a lead on one of Whitcomb's labs that might have a few computer parts left in it. One of the mission teams is out there collecting it so you'll have to go through that too. I can send some of it to London to ease your load a bit if you want."

"I'd rather do it myself." Her head tilted to the side at his statement, attempting to reason out why. He finally had pity on her and answered. "She's family—I don't like it when people mess with family."

Helen ducked her head and smiled in response. Henry had grown into a lovely and wonderful man. He was so different from the shy child she had known. "Alright." He left the room and she remained sitting. Moscow, now that was a new and interesting development that could quite complicate matters. Vladic, she should contact him to see if he had any contacts that would be useful to her. Setting that mental note aside, she began to work on the daily files that Will had been slipping her the past few weeks since she'd returned from London.

Helen quickly typed Will's username and password into the computer as soon as she reached her desk, determined to finish all the paperwork before he arrived for lunch. They had discussed eating together with Sara, to give her the opportunity to ask about them if she wanted. Sara's lessons were coming along fairly well, she was quick learner even though she was still years behind where any eight or nine year old should be, but she was by far ahead of any 8 month old that Helen knew of. Slipping easily into work mode, Helen tuned out her thoughts and focused only on the paperwork set before her.

Will slowly made his way into her office as Sara bounded through the room excitedly running around Helen's desk waiting for her mother to finish what she was doing before she would begin her explanation of the last few hours of her life that her mother had missed. It was sadly reminiscent for Helen; Ashley used to do the exact same thing when she couldn't burn off her excitement. Sara chattered loudly and quickly while the three made their way down to the kitchens.

Will had decided on what to make for lunch and he was very pleased with himself for it; it was his specialty after all. Heating up the skillet and pot he dumped the can of tomato soup into the pot and began to butter slices of bread. Helen was talking animatedly with Sara about some of the abnormals of which she had questions about that Will wasn't able to answer or had easily avoided answering. Sara was quick to ask a multitude of queries. Helen stood and wrapped her arms around Will after making sure no one else was in the room with them. She placed a soft kiss on his neck before looking over his shoulder at what he was cooking, "Grilled cheese." Her voice held a certain degree of disdain in it.

"It's comfort food and amazingly delicious." He sounded very unapologetic in his reasoning.

"Need a vegetable." She squeezed him once before making her way to the fridge to look for the appropriate veggie to add to their meal.

Will scoffed, "That's what the tomato soup is for." Helen's eyes slid over to lock with his, she gave him a look that said 'you're-not-going-to-win-or-change-my-mind-on-this-matter.' Giving up, he shrugged, "There's broccoli in there." Her nose scrunched in response as she reached for some celery. "I saw that look."

Feigning innocence she set the celery stock on a cutting board to be chopped into smaller pieces, "I don't know _what_ you are talking about."

"Uh huh." He pulled the now crispy sandwiches off the skillet and slid them onto the plates she had set out for him. By the time the soup was spooned she had celery cut and plated for all three of them. She picked up two plates and moved to the table in the corner of the room placing a plate in front of Sara and sitting next to the girl. The meal passed and Magnus glared at Will until he ate the horrid green things gracing his plate in protest.

The day passed without any further developments, the mission team had returned with the computer parts for Henry, although after he took one look at them there was a hopeless feel that permeated the air and wouldn't dissipate in his lab. Helen tried to keep the sense of it away from her and away from Sara. She took the afternoon off and brought Sara the New City Library where they were having a reading for children by a local author.

They had returned just after dinner, having already stopped to get food while out and about. They had also gone clothes shopping, as Sara's quick growth was becoming harder and harder to keep up with. Magnus had stocked up on jeans and shirts for the next two months; at least she hoped she had. After putting Sara to bed, Magnus returned to her office to work.

She hadn't been there long before Henry called her and Will down to his lab to fill them in on his newest discovery. "Ok, So I figured out that they didn't hack our system by any conventional means. They somehow managed to get a password and used that to access our systems." Helen rocked back on her heels; that was not good news. Lots of individuals had passwords to the camera system as it wasn't a major one that she wanted to keep confidential and the ability to access them crossed over to all the Sanctuary's in the network. "Basically, someone added a non-existent user to the system and that's what the Cabal have been using to access the cameras. I haven't been able to determine who added the user yet."

"And how did they add this user, only a Head of House can do that?"

"I haven't figured that one out either; they looped around the system several times to hide everything. I changed the security protocols and deleted the user so that shouldn't happen again, but there's something else you should see." Henry pulled up the video footage in the last email and clicked on the bookmarked part to what he wanted to show her.

Again Magnus watched Sara playing outside and smiling, but Henry hit the pause button. Zooming in and onto a figure in the background, he adjusted the focus so she could make out the form of none other than John Druitt. "Sorry Doc." Henry looked at the woman waiting for her reaction.

"I should have known he was involved. England, and then Russia. The non-existent user, he probably did it from my computer." Clenching her fist she turned sharply and left the room saying over her shoulder, "Henry, send those protocols to all heads, and make sure all Sanctuary's keep their EM shields raised." When Henry looked at Will, who was still technically the Head of House, for confirmation on what to do the man nodded his approval before following Magnus down the hallway and to the elevator.

Will caught up with her just as the doors to the elevator were closing. He slipped into the tiny confined space and felt the wave of anger hit him full force. She was furious. "I should never have trusted him, never have let him take her. God, how could I be so stupid? Every time this happens, every time he goes back on his word." She was walking from one end of the tiny room to the other, her arms crossed over her chest one minute and then flailing in anger the next. It was a wonder she didn't accidentally hit him.

"Magnus." She didn't answer him, or even acknowledge his presence. He tried her name again, only louder this time, "Magnus." Again the same result. Stopping her with hands on her shoulders, he spoke again, "Helen." Her eyes looked up to meet his, "You love him. It's not something that is easily rationalized. After he has been trustworthy these past few years you gave him a chance. You let him try and prove that he wouldn't screw it up again, and he did. It was a risk you took and one you can't take back. But Sara is safe. She is here, with us, and safe. That is what you need to remember."

She nodded sharply, but remained in his grasp. "It doesn't bother you?"

He took a moment to catch up with her, "That you love him?" She nodded her head. "No, if you didn't still feel something for him, then it would bother me. Love that deep and strong is not something you can feel once and then never again. I do wish you would stop letting him walk all over you, though, but that's a conversation for another time."

"You're sure?" she was so insecure that it was almost adorable to Will, he never saw her this unsure.

"Yes, I'm sure. It's obviously been a point of contention between you and past relationships."

She closed her eyes, "I haven't had many past relationships, Will. Lovers I have had, but certainly not relationships and yes, it has come to be a problem in all of them."

"All of them? Even Watson?" She sharply turned hers eyes to his face. He only grinned, "You didn't think I knew did you? Psychiatrist, remember? A keen observer of human nature. I saw the way you and he acted, indicative of a strong and lasting relationship that has had many ups and downs."

She took a steadying breath before speaking, "James was angry with me because I wouldn't tell him what had transpired between John and I. He knew something had occurred, but I refused to tell him what, exactly, had happened."

"I will never ask you to tell me what happened." His warm palm caressed her cheek and she leaned into the warmth.

"I know, because you already know what happened." He nodded his head not denying her statement. He did know, it was written all over her reactions the other night in the hallway and in the way she acted whenever John was around. Even 130 years couldn't erase that.

"I don't need to know the specifics, they are not important." She actually had tears in her eyes when she looked at him, they were threatening to brim over and spill. She nodded and leaned in pressing her soft lips against his mouth.

She pulled back slightly feeling his breath wash over her, "Thank you." She pressed forward again and deepened the embrace. Her lips closed around his not allowing him to open his mouth. She flicked her tongue out over his lips tasting, savoring the flavor. The hand on her face slid down to her neck and tilted her body closer into his; his other fingers gripped her jacket just above her hip. She moved down his throat, soft kisses trailed over his flesh, "Make me forget tonight, William."

"That I can do, and by the way, why isn't the elevator moving?"

She jerked her head back suddenly looking at him and then around the elevator. They weren't moving. Trailing her eyes over to the buttons she realized she hadn't exactly told the elevator to move. "I, um, forgot to, um…" Her cheeks burned a light pink with embarrassment as she leaned away from his arms and pressed the button quickly, finally signaling the machine to move. "I had other things on my mind."

He tugged her body back into his, "How about I put some new things in that mind of yours?"

She kissed him again, letting the cool exterior she always wore slip back into place, "That would be much appreciated."

Hours later, Helen's form was wrapped around Will's sleeping body. She had forced him to put boxers on when she had slipped on a camisole and loose pants in case Sara arrived in the middle of the night. She had been doing that a lot lately, but this was the first time that Will had stayed the night since Sara had been back at the Sanctuary. And it was a good thing she had insisted because while Helen was laying her head on Will's shoulder while he slept she heard the door to her room creak open.

Sara's tiny form found its way to the side of the bed where she stood looking at her mother and Will. Helen watched her carefully, leaning up on a hand to indicate to the child that she was awake. Sara only waited a moment before she began to climb over Will and to the place in between them. Helen slid back to make more room for the girl. Sara's knee collided with Will's stomach and he grunted awake in a sudden movement. She pulled the girl quickly off of Will's body and back onto the mattress to relieve the pressure on his abdomen.

To Will's credit, he didn't do anything further. Instead he sat up and stroked Sara's curls, "Did you have a nightmare?" His voice was soft and full of sleep, the covers pooled around his waist. Sara only nodded in response, clutching her dolly close to her chest and looking at him, but her body faced her mother as she sat Indian style. "You know what the best part about this room is?" Sara shook her head and he stroked his hand down over it again. "Nightmares aren't allowed in here, so as long as you're here none of them can scare you." She nodded again and placed her head against his chest. He stroked circles on her back in a soothing manner. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

She nodded and began, "You and mommy were running away from scary people. They had things that came out of their mouths and made a really loud noise." Magnus tensed, but Will continued to soothe the child. He moved pulling Sara into his lap and leaned against the headboard, wrapping his hands around her small form. Sara picked at the dolls hair as she continued, "You were running to the lab and you had black spots all over your arms. Then you went away and left mommy and then men killed you."

"Well I'm right here, sweetie, I'm not dead." Will kissed the top of the girl's head. Sara nodded her head and curled deeper into his body. They stayed that way for some time until Sara finally fell back to sleep. Will slipped down and tucked Sara into his body. He lay on his back throwing a hand under his head and staring up at the ceiling. Helen was still rather unsettled but she lay on her side and threw an arm over the child and onto the man, curling her body protectively around the girl before trying to close her eyes and fall asleep.

The next morning arrived much sooner than she would have liked. Will was already out of the bed and showered by the time he shook her awake. Helen groaned as she squinted her eyes against the light from the bathroom. Droplets of water fell from his wet hair and onto her face when he leaned down to kiss her chastely. "It's a quarter till six."

"Hmmm, alright, I'm getting up." He pulled back the blankets for her, letting the cool air brush against her skin. Goose bumps rose up on her arms and she shivered as she swung her legs over the edge of the mattress. Will followed her into the bathroom, his fingers laced with hers and his front rubbing against her back as she walked.

He placed more kisses along the cord of muscle from her neck to her shoulder as she opened the door and moved into the smaller room closing it behind him to keep the light off her sleeping daughter. She turned and leaned against the counter pecking his lips again before pulling out her toothbrush. Will spoke quietly, "I've got a lot of work to do today, I don't know if I'll make it to dinner or when I'll be finished."

She locked eyes with him and nodded before spitting into the sink. She rinsed her mouth out with water before speaking, "Think you could find some time to stop by my office today though? It's about Sara."

"Yeah, I'll make time." He grabbed her head and pulled her lips to his, tasting the mint. She tangled her tongue with his and grabbed hold of his sides. Will moved away from her and pouted. "I have to go."

She smirked, "Fine then. Run away." She giggled and turned back to the mirror watching his retreating form.

Will stopped by her office just before lunch but she had been deep in conversation with Declan who had called about an abnormal they had gotten a lead about in Antarctica and needed some creative ideas on how to contain it for transport. He waved to her when he caught her attention and mouthed that he would try back later.

Later it turned out, was much later, technically not even that day. The clock in his office hit half past midnight just as he threw down the lid of his laptop and rubbed his hands over his face. Magnus had been leaning against his doorframe for the last fifteen minutes silently watching him. "I think you need sleep."

He turned at her voice and eyed her; she always looked pristine even after a field mission. He placed his hands back on his face and moved them roughly over his skin, feeling the hairs on his chin roughly scratch at his palms, "Tough day."

Helen walked into the room and hooked her arms around his neck where he sat. She kissed his cheek before resting her chin against the crown of his head for a moment. "Come on then." She turned the chair and pulled his hands until he was standing in front of her.

He kissed her lightly on the lips before they moved to leave his office and he realized he hadn't gotten back around to her. "God, I'm so sorry. I didn't stop by your office."

"It's fine; really, I know how busy it can be."

"But still—"

"Really, Will. If it was that important I would have come by and told you. We can talk about it tomorrow when you have more time. I was, however, talking to Declan today and we came up with a plan to capture this new abnormal he's discovered and is all giddy over. He will need some help though. It's in Antarctica, and I thought that since you and Kate have never been there you might like the opportunity to go with him."

"Yeah, I'd love it."

"I could take care of things while you're gone." She suggested.

"I have the utmost amount of confidence in you and your ability to run this place." He cheekily added at her statement.

She rolled her eyes, "Right then, you can sleep in your own room tonight."

"I was joking!" He grinned knowing that she was teasing him. They entered her room and changed before climbing into the bed; both too exhausted to do anything other than let slumber overtake their weary bodies.

The next day, three hours before Will left for his newest mission, Helen received another email. The video was of her and Will in the elevator and his office, of Sara alone walking down the hallway to Magnus' rooms at night. The only words that accompanied the pictures this time were, "Time is growing short, whore. She will be dead soon, better say your goodbyes."

Will and Helen got into a heated debate, he had wanted to cancel the mission to the bottom of the world and instead remain at home. Helen said it was an irrational fear that he had and she could most certainly take care of herself and Sara. She eventually won the argument and Will left albeit in a very sour mood. Helen finished the day much as she usually did, late into the night. She had held her anger in check while talking to Henry about once again updating the security protocols and why exactly the last _upgrades_ hadn't been effective.

She was tired and frustrated. No new information had come out of the computers they had discovered, only further Cabal research that the network had already known about. Feeling a bit lonely having gotten used to Will in her bed, Helen went into Sara's room and scooped her daughter into her arms. The child never woke as Helen made her way to her own bed and covered her daughter with the blankets. Changing quickly, Helen slipped in behind her.

John found Sara, who had grown so much in his weeks of absence, in Helen's rooms. The mother was spooning her with a protective arm wrapped around their child, battle ready even in sleep. The thought made him smirk. Helen had always looked peaceful in slumber, but this night she did not. Her face was scrunched and her hair tangled in a mess.

"Is there anything in particular you want, John, or are you just going to stand there glowering all morning?" Helen's voice was harsh but quiet in the early morning rays. Thank God Will was gone on a mission. She had known the instant John had entered her room, and had decided to keep quiet, although the hand under her pillow was gripping her 9 mil tightly; the one she had tightly wedged between the mattress and headboard as soon as she had brought Sara home. Her old friend must have let him in, he had been gone when they had discovered him in the video and she hadn't been able to inform him.

"I killed her, Helen."

The woman lifted her head up to stare at him, her eyes piercing even in the lack of light. Looking down at Sara to satisfy herself that the girl was still sleeping, Magnus rose from the bed, gun in hand and moved to him. "Killed who?"

"Dana Whitcomb."


	10. Chapter 10

"Dana Whitcomb's dead? You're sure?"

"Positive." The timbre in his voice grew higher with the pleasure he obviously received from the memory.

"Is that where you went?" Helen was standing nose to nose with him, the tension in her body thick and hard as steel. John only shook his head in response, his eyes hardened against her and the joy faded from his person. "Then when?"

"Right after Ashley; the day of her funeral."

Helen's eyes flicked from one of his to the other: gaging him, calculating. Suddenly she turned on her heel and walked out of the room, expecting and waiting for him to follow her, which he did. Her voice was low and threatening when she spoke. "You're telling me this now. God John, this is ridiculous. I've been looking for the woman for eight bloody months and you're telling me now that you killed her years ago!" He had shut the door in time to muffle their voices from the other room and the sleeping child. He didn't answer her. "Where were you?"

He didn't move an inch, "Out."

Turning fiercely to face him she spoke, "Not good enough." She had put enough distance between them so if he attacked she would have time to react: a decisive, well planned and unchanging reaction on her part. The gun rested firmly in her hand.

John stood perfectly still, not responding to her outburst; his body was unwavering as he looked her over, his eyes flickered up and down her body. "Who has been keeping your bed warm, darling? I know that look, you're in love."

Her eyes narrowed, "I am not a piece of property for you to stake your claim on, John. Nor am I committed to you in any way."

His voice rose in anger and he stepped towards her, "Our daughter—"

"Has done perfectly fine without her father these past few weeks." Her quick retort forced him to fall silent. She softened her voice to try and gain the information she was seeking. "Where have you been, John?"

"Russia, England, New York, Buenos Aires and a few other places: does that satisfy your question?"

"More than you know." Her voice was soft as if she was speaking only to herself. "How is it John, that every time you tell me you have killed someone they turn up alive? Am I really to believe that Dana Whitcomb is truly dead?" She stared him down.

"She is. I would not have let her live under any circumstances. Not after what she did to Ashley."

"Oh, I want to believe you John, really I do."

"You trusted me once."

"That was different." She waited for him to take over the conversation, but he didn't so she continued all the while not letting her grasp on the weapon falter. "If you killed her years ago, what are you doing here now?"

"I couldn't very well search for the threat with the child in my care, now could I?" She could be patient; she could wait for him to stop avoiding her questions and actually answer one of them. "You're not going to like what I have discovered."

"Which is what exactly?"

"This is not a Cabal remnant driven _project_, Helen. It's coming from within."

She glared at him, "Impossible."

"Is it really?" His voice boomed and she heard Sara in the room call out her name.

"Get out, John. Don't bother coming back again."

He waited to speak, instead assessing her conviction in that last statement. He heard the girl call out again before he finally responded. "You have the cure to her rapid growth. I found some medical logs in my travels; you've had it all along."

"Leave now or so help me, I will kill you this time." He paused only a second before he bowed down to her with arms outstretched and left the hallway. He shut the front door to the Sanctuary and walked out of the gates without so much as glancing back.

As soon as Henry was up Helen made her way to his lab. "Henry, I need you to finish those traces on the emails immediately. I need to know exactly where they all came from and when exactly they were sent."

"Ok, Doc." He turned to his computer readying the system to begin his work.

She took a moment to contemplate whether or not to inform him of the rest. Deciding it would do no harm, she voiced. "Also, I had a visit from John last night. Make sure everyone knows that he is not allowed back in and that the EM shield is raised at all times. I'll contact the other Head's to tell them." She was walking up to her office from spending a few hours in the lab when Sara came in from outside crying and clutching her arm.

The girl couldn't stop sobbing long enough to tell Magnus what had happened, but luckily Kate came trailing in behind her. "I think it's broken, Doc. She fell out of the tree."

"Alright, come along, love, we'll get you all fixed up." Sara curled into her mother's side asking, as only a child can, to be picked up and coddled. Helen obliged and carried her daughter down to the infirmary. She started an IV right away and gave the girl some pain meds after having a preliminary look over the arm and determining that it was in fact broken. Straight through if she was correct.

The girl was loopy with drugs by the time Helen had her under the X-ray machine. She developed the film while keeping an eye on the girl via a monitor. Yes, definitely broken, luckily it wouldn't require surgery, only a reset and a cast. Sara would not be happy about the amount of time the cast would be on after it lost its appeal.

The next morning Sara was still in the infirmary, her arm in a bright pink cast that just about the entire staff and half the abnormals who lived in the Sanctuary had signed. Ashley had always refused to let others sign a cast that was only going to be replaced shortly with another one. Helen was glad in some ways that Sara was so different from Ashley; it reminded her that she wasn't reliving a very interesting and terrifying period of her life, but only experiencing another.

"I brought you some breakfast, love." Helen set the bowl of fruit loops onto the hospital tray and swung it over so Sara could eat. Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Picking it up, she saw Declan's name, but ignored the call. He, no doubt, had just returned from the mission and wanted to fill her in on the details. Helen ran her hand over Sara's hair, "When you're finished, come up to my office. I think my old friend is going to teach you the times tables today." Helen left the room and Sara who was trying very hard to eat with her non-dominant hand. A task that was not easy to accomplish.

Declan had sent her an email and a text message asking her to call immediately. Sighing she picked up the landline to dial. Really, this man needed to learn how to work on his own sometimes; she would read the report when he finished it, it was not necessary to call her for every detail. "Magnus?" He answered, his prim accent betraying anxiety.

"Yes, how was the trip?"

"Cold, but that's not why I called. Will didn't wait longer than thirty minutes after we landed before catching another flight out to you. Kate stayed to help with the creation of the new environment for the abnormal, though. Magnus," he paused, trying to find the best way to bring this topic up, "There has been a new development and Will is particularly angry at the moment about it so please remember that when he arrives."

"Alright," she placated him, "What's this new development?"

"It's a threat, actually, with a detailed timeline. I have contacted the others Head's and we will have a teleconference in a few hours to discuss how to proceed, but you needed to know." He hadn't exactly told her anything specific, a threat was a threat, they received a lot of them—but who was it against? "You."

Had she spoken out loud? She must have for him to answer, "The threat was for me? Did it say anything about Sara?"

"Yeah: three days Magnus. It says 'The whore and her daughter will die within three days' time. Nothing you attempt will stop it from happening.'" He read it verbatim. "Got it in an email while we were out, sent yesterday. I've already talked to Henry and he's running his trace, he said the last email you got came from Buenos Aires."

"Yeah, I'm reading his email now. Is that all it said?" He hummed an affirmative response. "Well at least in three days this should all be over." Her stomach was doing flip flops, but Declan would have been none the wiser.

"That wasn't the only thing in the email, though. And I will have to take this to the Heads of House just so that they are aware of the situation and some complications it might entail." She waited for him to continue as she flipped through emails she had received in the night. "There was some questionable footage of you and Will."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Actually, there was quite a bit of footage."

"I'm sorry we didn't inform you, Declan, but there have been a lot of other events that have taken precedence."

"Yeah, I'm sure. The teleconference with the executive committee will be taking place this afternoon." He knew she never would have told him. She was fastidiously private and hardly gave any personal information away. The fact that there was video footage of it that was now going to be public knowledge in the network most likely didn't bode well for her professionalism or private tendencies.

"Right, well email me what the outcome of the conference is." She ended the call and began her own work for the day, only stopping when Sara and her old friend came in to begin her daughter's studies.

Sara was slowly falling asleep on the floor in front of the fireplace with one of her new favorite books in her lap which she was reading aloud to her dolly. Helen was still doing paperwork at her desk, she would have to leave it behind soon as it was past Sara's bedtime and the girl obviously needed to go to sleep. Helen was just leaning over Sara to pick her up when the door to her office slammed open, actually causing her to jump slightly.

"I should have stayed, I told you; I should have stayed." Will's voice was deep with hurt and anger, his eyes wide and accusing towards her. Sara had woken up full force with the reverberating bang that the wood against stone caused.

Helen glared at him as she ushered the now awake and frightened Sara to stand and out of the door he had just entered. She whispered harshly before moving completely passed him, "You will wait here and will have this discussion, but _not_ in front of Sara."

She returned thirty minutes later to find Will staring out her office window. "I'm sorry," he said as she waited a moment and then wrapped her arms around his waist and settled her chin on his shoulder. He grabbed hold of her hands and held them to him. "I didn't know she was in the room; I figured she'd be asleep already."

"It's ok, I explained it to her. We just have to be careful, especially around her."

"Meaning?"

Helen took a deep breath and turned him to face her. She leaned in a kissed his lips, "Glad you're home. No worse for wear I see?"

He shook his head in response. "In and out; easy as pie."

She nodded and waited a few seconds before continuing. She had meant to tell him this before he left, but there had been little time and high emotions. "I think Sara is telepathic."

"But Ashley—"

"Wasn't." She finished for him. "I know, but she did become that…after the Cabal. She also could teleport, had vampiric tendencies, rapid healing: who knows what they did to her but I think Sara was cloned after Ashley was changed. That would mean that Sara would also have these qualities."

"What makes you think she's telepathic, I haven't seen any signs of that."

"I don't think she knows yet," her fingers curled with his and she sat on the cushions in front of the view of New City. "Her dream she had the other night, her nightmare. I had that dream a few weeks ago."

"How do you know she didn't pick that up in a book somewhere or one of Biggie's horror stories that he tells her?"

Helen scoffed as he joined her. She lifted her feet and placed them over his lap. Will pulled off her heels and began to rub the arches. Leaning back she answered him, "Because it's a memory."

"It's…what?" He concentrated more on what his hands were doing so he wouldn't hurt her with his surprise and to help him calm his features.

"A few years ago, when I went to Central America on my 'jungle hunt for the tomb of the Mayan King' I believe is what you called it, I did find the tomb. It's just what I found there was rather unexpected. I experienced an alternative timeline of sorts. Needless to say, her dream is exactly what happened."

Will didn't move, his hands pausing in their actions and he slowly and carefully turned his face to meet hers. "Ok, well the fact that you lied to me does disturb me slightly, but we'll get back to that later. You're saying that you had that dream weeks before Sara did. Correct?" She nodded. "So the only way she could have seen that was because it came from you."

"Yes, Will. I don't think she can control the telepathy at this point, or if she even realizes that that is what's been happening, but for a child of such a young age and little experience she has a great deal of nightmares with many vivid and realistic components of _our _lives in them. I thought it was just from all the talk she hears, until that night."

"Well, we'll have to be more careful what we say around her, and think for that matter. We'll all have to watch her closely to see if any other powers develop." Helen agreed with him and tucked her legs under her body, swiveling on her bottom until her back was planted against his chest. She grabbed hold of his hand and wrapped his arm around her front so she could play and stare at his fingers, further avoiding the topic he had so angrily come to her with. "We're going to have to talk about it sometime." He prodded lightly.

"I know." That was all she gave him, her face was complacent and with her back to him, he couldn't see her reactions.

"It scared me, Helen."

She nodded and he felt a tear drip onto his forearm. She was crying, well at least she wasn't able to hold back all of the tears that were threatening a fantastic show. "It scared me, too. I never dealt with something like this with Ashley. It's so very different."

He pressed a kiss to her temple, "We'll figure it out. We always do."

"Yeah, but at what cost?"

"I don't know." He paused for minutes on end and let his words sink in before he continued, "Hey, what did Declan say was the outcome of the conference?"

She turned to face him, "Oh, that's right, he was supposed to email me. Henry was playing around with the server and it was down most of the day. He's probably finished by now." She slid off him and gracefully walked to her desk where she pulled up her email. Finding several messages from Heads of Houses and from Declan himself she opened his first, knowing he would be the most concise and relevant.

_Magnus,_

_The network wants to have as much protection around you and Sara as possible. Jephthah will be arriving from New York around 11 tonight and I will be joining you as soon as possible. My flight arrangements are yet unknown. They have also requested that as soon as both of us arrive, we place the Sanctuary in lockdown mode until the allotted time has passed._

_Declan_

"This is ridiculous!" Her voice rang through the office as Will finished reading the email over her shoulder. "I do not need protection like I'm some damsel in distress. Not to mention the dangers of having three Heads of House and the two current Network leaders in the same volatile situation. What are they thinking?"

He placed a calming hand on her shoulder and rubbed gently up and down. "They are thinking that you are someone they can't lose." She only glared at him in response. Quickly, she scrolled through the rest of her emails finding the exactly flight times of Jephthah and Declan. The first was due in an hour and a half. Declan wouldn't be in until late morning with Kate in tow, having caught the last flight out of London and the first into New City.

"I can take care of myself." She mumbled still scoffing at the idea of all of this being for her.

"That is not what is in question, Helen. They just want to make sure that you are okay and that you have all the support you need."

"But this is a little bit over the top, you must admit."

"It does seem a bit excessive. However, it is what has been decided and you're just going to have to deal."

She finished reading her other emails, "Would you mind asking Henry to make up the guest rooms? I'll arrange for transport from the airport."

"I can fix up the rooms, give Henry more time to run his traces, he must have been desperate to tinker with the server."

"I thought that we—never mind, you're right." He leaned in and kissed her on her lips shortly.

"I'll only be twenty minutes, I promise." She nodded and deepened the embrace. He was the first to pull away and he rested his forehead against hers. "Don't ever make me leave in the middle of a situation like this again, Magnus. I'm serious; I will resort to insubordination next time."

She looked him in the eye; he was unwavering and worried for her wellbeing. "Alright, I promise."

"Twenty minutes," he kissed her one last time with a smile gracing his face before leaving the room, "and I expect you naked and in bed by the time I get back, woman!" Helen only rolled her eyes and gave him a fake salute when he walked out the door. The man was filled to the brim with absurdity sometimes.

The next day could not have been more tension filled. For most of it Magnus, Will, Declan and Jephthah were all seated in her office in the midst of a stare off. Will believed Magnus was winning since she hadn't spoken and the other two were beginning to twiddle their thumbs. Realizing that she wasn't going to be rid of them, she let them sit in awkward silence, if only to prove a point. Yes, it was childish, but this entire situation was not a reflection of the best choices the network had made, starting from the beginning of the entire _fiasco_.

Helen had barely seen her daughter that day, which was probably a good thing because apparently Jephthah was not good with children. Sara had come in to fetch Helen and Will for a late snack and the man had simply glowered at her the entire time. Upon Helen's return the man lit into her like she was some twenty-something with her first child and he was the all-knowing experienced man. "It is entirely inappropriate to have children wandering the hallways in a place like this." His green eyes were glowering as he towered above the sitting woman.

"I beg your pardon, but this is my house and my daughter is free to roam as she pleases. She knows where to and where not to go and I trust her learn her lesson if she does wander off."

The man wisely remained silent after that and turned back to his files in hand. Helen retreated and spent the rest of the day in the lab actively avoiding her office like it was plague. No one was in a pleasant mood because of lack of sleep and stressing factors. To keep the stress level down for the rest of the staff she kept Sara close. The girl was still trying to vie attention for her broken arm after Will had coddled her all morning, but she was doing her lessons nonetheless. Helen moved to the massive fridge and pulled out a vial of Sara's blood. She had a few more tests to run on it because of an idea that she had.

Sara had put up little fight in getting her to sleep that night, but Helen had, after all, insisted that the girl stay in her rooms. It had been three days come midnight and she wasn't going to let Sara leave her side the next day. She put little stock in the threat, there was no way anyone was getting into the Sanctuary, but still, that nagging maternal fear had come and hit her full force.

Will had convinced her to have a glass of wine to try and relax, but he could tell she was still tensed. Her body language stated she was on high alert, every sound she picked up she didn't overtly respond to but he saw her brain analyzing and categorizing each one. She had told him where just about every weapon she had hidden in her rooms were, and was expecting him to respond if she were incapacitated. The Cabal and whoever was now leading them, or perhaps even Whitcomb herself who John had no doubt not actually _killed_, were not after only Sara, but herself as well.

She was surprised when the bout of sleepiness hit her, it was only just after midnight, and she had been sure with all the excitement she wouldn't want to sleep. She climbed into the bed careful to not disturb the deep sleeping child and letting Will settle in behind her and wrap his arm around her stomach. He kissed the back of her neck and she strained her neck in order to face him, pressing lips against his lovingly. Deciding to turn fully around to face him, she opened her mouth under his ministrations and let her tongue slide and entangle with his.

She pulled away with one last chaste embrace and snuggled her face into his neck. Will encircled her body tightly and squeezed as he whispered into her hair, "What was that for?"

Looking into his eyes she trailed a finger over the side of his cheek. "I don't know what I would do without you, Will. You've become such an integral part of my life."

There was a beat before he answered. "Alright." His arms tightened again and he closed his eyes to attempt sleep.

Her voice was soft and slow when she spoke next. Her lips brushing against the tender flesh of his neck with each word she formed. "I love you."

"Yeah, I love you, too." He pressed one last kiss into her hair before he fell into slumber.

It was like he was swimming through half melted caramel with no snorkel to help him breathe. He couldn't see anything, at least he hoped his eyes were actually opening and looking around the room, not that it mattered if he couldn't see anything. There was a static sound rushing through his ears, quieting one moment only to drown out everything in seconds flat. He groaned, but could barely make out his own voice. Blinking his eyes rapidly he began to make out shades of color. The sun was obviously high in the sky otherwise he wouldn't be able to see anything—they hadn't turned any lights on.

He felt a hand on his cheek just as his world started to spin out of control. He could make out Kate's face, or rather her olive skin surrounded by a mass of dark hair. Her voice was shouting at him, something that he couldn't quite make out with the static raging through his ear canals. He was turned on his side as his body began to convulse and the vomit erupted from his stomach and onto the floor below.

By the time he was finished heaving, his body was rolled again onto his back and wet cloth clung to his neck and forehead. Licking his lips, he tried to make out words, but only managed one. "Helen?" Even through the blurriness he could make out the panic in the young woman's face. Managing to pull himself up, he hung onto her shoulders to prevent his body from falling back onto the infirmary cot. Wait, not Magnus' bed, how long had he been out of it? His body tilted forward and back as he spoke, "Where is she?"

"We don't know, Will."

The static came back full force and slammed into him. Will leaned over Kate's body and the railing on the bed dry heaving. Drawing in a deep breath, he managed to ask one last question, "Sara?"

"We don't know." Her voice softened as the news began to sink in.

_A/N: Ok, hope you enjoyed it and "so sorry" to leave it on such a cliffhanger. lol I've got two tests this week so I won't be writing much until they're complete. Hope you enjoy this and please review as I love reading them and it helps with motivation to finish this. _


	11. Chapter 11

_Helen was having difficulty opening her eyes, particularly her left one. She tried to move her hands but her wrists were bound and locked straight above her head. Her shoulders were burning and her feet weren't touching the ground so she was unable to relieve the pressure. Helen rolled her head in an attempt to force movement into her stationary and stiff body. She struggled to take in a deep breath, but a very loud hissing sound and wheezed out._

_Dipping her tongue out to wet her lips in an automatic gesture she tasted the blood. Closing her eyes she could feel it slowly dripping down from her eye—no wonder she couldn't open it. Coughing, she continued to have problems drawing air into her lungs, her entire body racked from side to side with the movement which only caused her shoulders to strain even more._

_She couldn't see anything with her one good eye. Straining her neck as slow as possible from side to side Helen found herself in complete utter darkness and unable to make out anything in front of her. She licked her lips again in concentration this time—where was she? Her fingers curled over the handcuffs that were confining her hands above her. They were tight and already digging into her flesh; if she focused hard enough she could feel the small slices against the boney parts of her wrists. _

_Wrapping her hands around the chain she pulled her body up slightly, relieving the pull on her shoulders but increasing the pain in her biceps. It was lose—lose but at that point the latter was preferable. Her face turned into a grimace when her arms loosed and her body dropped to hang again. _

_She heard the shuffle before she felt the presence. She wasn't alone. She didn't speak, only waited to see what would happen. A warm hand found its way to her side and gently caressed her skin before pushing and swinging her limp form back and forth. Focusing only on the presence she ignored the flashing pain that was threatening to blind her. The hand was removed, its fingers leaving her stomach last—whoever it was, they were right behind her. _

_The hand moved to her shoulder and trailed over her back as they moved in front of her. Her eyes strained to see a face, but it was pitch black—she would never be able to see. The fingers trailed around her waist and to the center of her abdomen before it released quickly from her body. Before she had time to react or brace herself the fist pounded into her stomach. Her body jerked back and swung in a circle. She tensed her muscles, bracing for another blow that didn't come quickly. Rather, it waited patiently until she began to relax before it struck again in almost exactly the same spot. _

_On the fifth or sixth punch, she was quickly losing count, she felt one of her ribs snap and her voice rang out through the air for the first time. Immediately it all stopped. She felt the warm hand on her side again steadying her body before it back to swing her back and forth again. The respite was small, but she took it. _

_Her breathing was shallow and difficult and she could see white spots in her vision. She was going to pass out if this kept up. Her body swung forward just as a hard object collided with her front, breaking more ribs and forcing a loud grunt from her vocal cords before the white fuzz took over._

Will was watching the monitor closely; his face was almost pressed to the screen. As soon as he had recovered enough he forced Henry to pull it up and Kate to let him out of the infirmary. He was insistent on joining in the search; getting away from the witch doctor Kate, had only taken another hour at least so he wasn't that far behind. Declan had already viewed it multiple times looking for any hint of where Helen and Sara could have been taken, but Kate suggested his "freaky eyes" could probably find more.

The kidnapping was quick, a dark and nondescript form covered entirely in black slinked into the room from the hallway and returned with the girl first. It came back moments later and went into the room. The second time it came out it was dragging Helen by her arms down the hallway to the end of the corridor where it miraculously disappeared from all cameras. There was nothing in the room, no camera's to catch that horror, but he could only assume if he was drugged, that Helen and Sara had been as well—seeing as how neither put up a fight.

The Big Guy and Jephthah were already doing a floor to floor sweep of the Sanctuary starting from top down. Will was headed to her rooms again to try and figure out exactly where they had gone to. Declan was informing the Sanctuary heads of what was going on and working with Henry on a more technical aspect (which mean Declan was running through videos while Henry played with the system).

Kate had the unfortunate job of feeding all the abnormals and attempting to ignore the situation, although she took the opportunity to search the SHU and all containments for their lost boss and her daughter. She ran into Sally the mermaid when an idea hit her. Placing a hand against the glass like she'd seen the boss do many times she waited for the mermaid to swim up and mirror her. Looking into the woman's eyes she thought as strongly and as much as she could of Magnus and verbally asked if the woman knew where the Doc was.

Sally shook her head in response and sent Kate a sorrowful feeling. The woman was tempted to step back and go on her way, the idea had been stupid. But the feeling of fear that Sally sent her was something else altogether. The name Sara bounced around in Kate's head on whispers that echoed in hers ears. Kate's mind was brought to a tiny room; she could see knees surrounded by tiny arms when she looked down. Glancing around there was nothing distinct about the room. She flashed back to looking at the mermaid who had sad eyes.

"Keep her safe." Kate didn't know what else to do.

The mermaid nodded in response before the girl's name changed to two words. "She's here." It was on the same whispery tones as Sara's name had been and it was overwhelming.

"She's here?" The mermaid nodded in answer. Kate's smile grew suddenly before she thanked the mermaid and ran out of the lab. She raced into Magnus' office to find it empty before moving on to Will's office. It was also void of people so she pulled the radio off the clip of her belt. "Will!" She called into it waiting for an answer.

Luckily, she didn't have to wait long, "What?"

"Talked to Sally—Sara's in the building."

"Magnus?"

"She didn't know."

"Got it. Declan, Jephthah, Henry? Get that?" After he heard affirmatives from all three he continued. "Declan, leave the comps to Henry and help Biggie with the search."

"Right." His voice was strong now that he had something to go on; the team had a lead and was ready to act. They were no longer lost in the unknown.

_Helen woke up to cold water running down her face. She assumed someone had tossed it on her to try and wake her; unfortunately for her it had worked. She cleared her throat and licked her lips dragging in as much of the water as possible to quench her thirsty and cottony throat. She hadn't noticed that before, the cotton mouth. She most certainly had been drugged. _

_She could feel the presence almost immediately this time and she decided to try to speak. "Wh—where's Sara?" Her voice was gruff and gravelly and she swallowed hard trying to rid the dryness in her vocal cords. She wasn't as loud as she would have liked, but she waited for an answer nonetheless. Whoever it was circled her: watching her hanging head, blood riddled clothes and wet stingy hair. _

_With her eyes completely useless, her ears were on full alert. So when the light shown in the corner of the room she was literally blinded by its brightness. Squeezing her eyes shut she picked up the sound of a virtual click and footsteps before she heard a voice. "You're going to die today." The voice was happy and taunting, a woman. Dana—the voice was Dana Whitcomb's. _

_Helen groaned inwardly and opened her eyes to pitch back again. "Where's Sara?" She asked again, hoping to get an answer this time round. Instead she received a blow to her already swollen eye. Her head snapped back instantly and forced her neck to stiffen in response. _

_The voice sounded again, but there was no light this time, only the words, "You're going to die today." The resonance and timbre of the voice was exactly the same as it was before. _

_The hand grabbed her chin and jerked her face towards the presence. The fingers were warm even against her burning wet flesh. The other hand moved to her broken ribs and ground into them. Helen cried out in pain, "Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" She tried to swing her legs forward to kick out, but as soon as she got the momentum to reach the pinnacle her ankles snapped back, cuffs slicing her flesh and chains rattling. Damn, she thought. Her legs were shackled. How had she not noticed that before? She had lost feeling at this point in her hands and the majority of her arms. The painful tingling was gone until she felt the knife. Cold steel against her forearm as it sliced down a straight line to her armpit._

_She whimpered at the feeling, but instinctively she knew the wound was only superficial which allowed it to bleed but would cause little in the way of infection or scarring. "What do you want?" She was soft and meaning to sound resigned as the words lilted off her tongue. She received no answer other than a sharp slap across her face. She felt her body being pushed backwards until at the peak of tension between the chains confining her hands and the one digging into her ankles. She was released and swung forward with such a force that she thought she would vomit from being jerked back at the opposite height. Upon her return swing she felt the wood strike her back and stop her swing. Crying out her muscles arched and tore her shoulder out of its socket. Her eyes began to fuzz over white again and she fought hard to stay conscious, but ultimately failed. _

Henry was sitting in the weapons lab with all monitors and computers working at full force. The air in the room was becoming stifling because of the constant work the machines were doing. Will walked in with Kate close on his heels to get a report. "What you got for me, Henry?"

"Ok, so I ran a full perimeter sweep to see if I could find any glitches or breaches in the line, and I found a lot. They could have taken her through of any one of them. Someone hit us with a hack through our own system that caused the breach to happen from midnight on." He shook his head sadly, "I'm still trying to fix the entire thing. The worst part is that our scanners inside the building are not functioning to capacity so I'm unable to find Sara."

"That's alright, we'll keep searching and you keep working on it." Will pointed at Henry as he was walking out of the room to rejoin the search. All three: him, Declan and Jephthah, had taken separate search areas and were working alone. He wasn't so sure that was a great idea, but he had yet to find a better solution until Henry had all the systems up and working. Being alone created an unnecessary vulnerability in his team.

He and Declan met up in the front hall to discuss strategies after finishing their latest designated zones. "This is ridiculous, Will, with only the three of us, it's going to take at least a day to run through every known room in this building, not to mention all the ones Magnus put in that we don't know about when she built this place." The man threw a hand through his hair and let out a frustrated sigh. "It's bloody hopeless."

"We know Sara is somewhere in these walls, even if Magnus isn't. We need to find her first; Helen would want it that way."

The other head nodded roughly in agreement. "You're right."

Will's radio clicked and he heard Henry's voice: "Will, I got the scanners up and running for a second before there was a second hack that wiped them out, but I got Sara's biometric reading. She's in the foyer."

Will and Declan locked eyes for an instant before turn in a circle, "I'm in the foyer Henry and she's not—wait." Will spotted the huddled form against the side of the stairs. "Sara!" He took long and fast steps over to the girl just as she glanced up and saw him.

"Will!" She stood and reached her hands up for him to hold her. Will happily obliged and pulled the girl into his embrace.

Pressing his lips to her head he spoke to her, "Are you ok? Nothing hurts?" The girl's head shook against his shoulder in an answer. "Alright, it's ok now." Sara was crying profusely, unable to hold back the wave of emotions that seeing him brought from her.

"I'm scared."

"I know, baby. You're safe now, it's all ok." He wasn't about to let go of her, but he needed to check her over for injuries and make sure she really was okay. "Declan, report this to the others and find the Big Guy and send him down to the infirmary." The man nodded and went to do as he was told. Will moved into the elevator pressing the button with his elbow to bring him down to the infirmary. "Sara?"

She nodded and sniffled against his neck, "Yeah?"

"How did you end up in the foyer?"

"I don't know. I was so scared and it was so dark and I just thought of how you told me that in Mommy's room the bad dreams couldn't hurt me and then I wasn't in the little room anymore."

"Ok, well no one's going to hurt you now okay? I'm not going to leave you." He set her down on an infirmary bed and held her wrists tightly. She still had tears trailing over her cheeks, but at least she wasn't sobbing or having a hard time breathing through the sobs anymore. He wiped away the salty tracks with his palms and thumbs pressing lips to her forehead in comfort.

She nodded her head and tried to reign in her overwhelming fear, "Where's Mommy?"

"I don't know, baby, I'm still working on that one."

"You have to find her!"

"I know, I know."

"You don't understand. She's hurt…a lot."

"Ok," running fingers over her curls he attempted to calm her again, "Your mom is strong, Sara. I need to look you over, to make sure you're not hurt, ok?"

She nodded again and let him begin to examine her, looking for bruises or cuts. "She's hurt real bad." Will didn't answer her only moved his hands over her arms feeling for any broken bones that weren't supposed to be there. Her cast was still firmly in place.

He finished his exam just as the Big Guy entered. "She's not hurt so far as I can tell. You might want to take some blood just to be sure that nothing is wrong there."

Biggie grunted in an answer and drew a needle from a drawer. Placing it gingerly against the girls arm he drew the blood. "I'll run tests, but Helen will do them again."

"Yeah, I figured. Come on Sara." He picked her up again, not minding cradling her small form into his body. He felt an immense amount of relief having her that close and he wasn't about to let that go if she didn't mind being coddled. Will took her to the weapons lab to regroup.

Everyone was huddled around the tiny table with monitors and computers galore covering every surface. Henry was cursing under his breath, "Sorry, it's going to take me a couple hours to get the scanners back up and running."

"That's fine, just keep working on it." Will seemed so much calmer now that the girl was nestled in his arms; it was quite shocking that he was this comfortable with her, but something he could easily learn to deal with. Magnus was strong and used to being in these types of situations, she could easily pull through. He was still worried about the woman, but he had more confidence in her ability to survive than in his ability to find her. His chin was resting on the crown of the child's head when he heard a beep. "What's that?"

Henry flipped through a few more screens until he found what he was looking for. "Email: marked urgent."

Will and Declan exchanged looks, but it was Jephthah who spoke first, "Well, open it." Henry got confirmation from Will before he double clicked. There was a link inside—this was beginning to look eerily familiar. Opening the link an image appeared before them. They could barely make out the figure hanging in the center of the room, but the night vision and sudden jerking of the body brought the image into focus. It was Magnus.

"Henry—"

"On it."

Will moved his entire body away from the computer and left the room, Sara did not need to see that. Kate followed him. "Will—catacombs." Her voice was confident and she pulled out a gun from its holster.

"You're sure."

"Yeah, Hank and I were snooping around there a while back, we went into that room."

"Get Declan." He watched Kate leave before turning to Sara, "Sweetie, would you be ok to stay with Henry so I can go find your mommy?" She nodded her head against his shoulder but didn't make to move any more than necessary. Will went back into the room. "Henry, you're in charge of Sara and turn that monitor off. She doesn't need to see that." He transferred the girl effortlessly into Henry's waiting lap before leaving once again.

He was on Kate's heel, who was leading the way; Declan and Jephthah were on his with weapons drawn. They weaved in and out of the building until arriving at the door in total silence. Taking a standard formation with two people on each side of the door, Will turned the knob silently and was surprised to find it unlocked and unhindered.

He pushed on the heavy wood and let it swing with its own momentum. His eyes roamed inside the doorway that was being revealed moment by moment and made out her form in the light spilling in from the hallway. The door smacked into the wall as it swung completely open and it was then that she looked up and saw his face while simultaneously he heard the gunshot resound through the stone room and hallway.

_A/N: am I learning the art of cliffhangers or something? Muhahaha…sorry this wasn't posted Saturday like I promised…the next and hopefully final chapter of this love story will be coming soon to a screen near you. Enjoy and be sitting on the edge of your seats. ~~Arones_


	12. Chapter 12

Will looked around the room quickly trying to figure out exactly where the blast had come from. He couldn't see a lot, but he definitely knew the room was empty save for the unmoving form of his lover hanging limply by her hands. Will flung around to see the other's still holding weapons high and raised. "No one's—" he saw the tiny movement too late. The finger twitched on the trigger. Leaping in front of the woman in a vain attempt to help her, the second bullet blasted through the night and grazed his cheek and most definitely sliced into the body behind him.

Falling to the ground in a heap he was only beginning to stand when he saw Declan flip quickly and pull his own weapon on the man standing behind Kate. Thank God Will had not been the only one to see it. Declan pushed the weaker man against the wall and wrenched his gun filled hand behind him. Jephthah dropped the gun and it clattered to the ground. He pulled out a zip-tie from his back pocket and Will moved towards Helen. Checking a pulse he was absolutely relieved when he felt it, even the faint beat meant she was still alive.

"Kate, give me a hand." Will wrapped his arms around Helen's waist to relieve the pressure on her shoulders and arms enough for Kate to pick the lock. By the time Will had laid her down against the cold cement floor Declan had tossed Kate the key and she was unlocking the woman's feet. Declan dragged the man in question to the SHU and placed him in isolation.

Helen woke up slowly to the sound of beeping in her ear. She recognized it instantly as a heart monitor. Her entire body ached, from head to toe. She tried to move, but her attempts were slow and took a lot of effort on her part. Her wrists and ankles were burning and she had to take shallow breaths otherwise the sharp pain in her side and chest forced her to cough. Her shoulder was sore and stiff and she couldn't really move it, but she could wiggle her feet, which was a good sign. Drawing in air slowly she opened her eyes, finally adjusting to the bright light that was her infirmary.

"Hey," his voice was music to her ears. She felt him slide onto the bed next to her, his fingers caressing her uninjured shoulder and arm. His hand was cold against her warm flesh and she was thankful, painkillers usually gave her skin a flushed feel and she undoubtedly was on many.

She managed one word, "Sara?"

"She's fine, found her before we found you. She wasn't hurt at all, just scared. Henry's with her now, although she really wants to come see you."

"How long?" were her next words, she really wished she could touch him, but her arms were not cooperating.

"You've been out for about two days. The swelling on your face is almost gone; it's just black and nasty now." She snorted what she could before grimacing in pain. "I'll ask the Big Guy to increase the morphine."

She shook her head, "No, don't. Not necessary."

He leaned over and kissed her lips then. "Want some water?"

"Yeah," she rasped out and waited for the straw to grace her lips. He held a hand behind her head to help her drink. After she finished he sat her up a bit. "Thank you." Pressing her head against the pillow she looked over his face, noticing the small bandage of butterfly stitches on his cheek for the first time. "Bring Sara tomorrow, when I have more energy."

"Alright," He was leaning over her, one arm on each side of her body to hold him up. "Want me to leave you to rest?"

"No, tell me what happened."

He nodded and looked down at her hospital gown clad stomach before drawing in a deep breath of his own. "I'll keep it as brief as I can."

"That would be appreciated."

"Ok, first things first: Dana Whitcomb is dead and apparently has been for years. Jephthah worked for her during the Cabal reign where Whitcomb and started a plan 'B' in case plan 'A' with Ashley didn't work. After Whitcomb was killed by none other than Johnny 'dearest' Druitt, Jephthah decided to join the Sanctuary Network in order to gain better access to you and to continue on the Cabal's work in secret.

"Apparently, they have been cloning Ashley's DNA since before her capture and transformation, but it was the after her transformation that they needed to make plan 'B' succeed. All of the clones died within one year of their creation. They thought that with the source blood, this little problem would be fixed, but apparently it wasn't. So they continued researching until they thought the problem was solved and that's when Jephthah contacted Sara Whitcomb, posing as her mother.

"Jephthah has been the organizer of this whole thing, using his contacts and privileges within our network to complete everything from the video feeds to the emails from all over the world, to setting up Sara Whitcomb at our front gates and the bombs in her. Declan will be moving him to a safe house outside of London for the man's foreseeable future."

She nodded and her eyes locked with his, "I want to see him, before he is transferred."

"We'll talk about that later."

"I'm serious, Will."

"So am I, Helen." He mimicked the pointed look she had given him and threw it right back at her. "I promise I will not let them leave before we discuss this, but we will discuss this before you see him."

She readily agreed, "How did you find Sara?"

"Actually, she found me. Apparently she can teleport, but she doesn't quite have control of it so far. Don't worry the EM Shields are down so she won't get hurt." He leaned down and kissed her again letting his lips linger this time as long as she wanted. "I'll let you rest now and be back in the morning with Sara. She's been waiting to see you like crazy. Asking every time she sees me if we can come see Mommy."

"Did you explain this to her?"

"She already knows. Telepathic, remember? She hasn't seen you so I'll talk to her about that a bit first, but she knows you were roughed up good." Helen's lips upturned at his vernacular and quiet humor. "Come on, let's get you comfortable again." He lowered the back of the bed and pulled a pillow out from behind her head so she could rest more peacefully in sleep. Luckily the drugs would act like a sedative and let her slumber without nightmares.

"Will," she started as he began to move away. He pulled back to her and her fingers found their way to the hem of his shirt. She grasped the cotton tightly. "You'll tell me tomorrow how that happened?" She indicated the wound on his cheek. He nodded and she continued, "Well then, kiss me properly."

"With pleasure," He took his time and let her set the tempo, not wanting to do anything further to injure her in anyway, even if it was just drawing in sharp and rapid breaths. Her entire body didn't move, simply because she couldn't make it move, but the feeling of his mouth on hers was heavenly.

Stopping she opened her eyes and waited until he did the same, "I love you."

He grinned against her, "I love you, too." Kissing her chastely once again he left the room and turned off the lights so she could sleep. After all, that morning he had been talking about, it was in about four hours. Will didn't sleep the rest of the night; he had been waiting patiently for the woman to wake and had thus fallen behind on everything else. Catching up would be a good idea because he was sure the Network would want a quick and detailed update.

Sara had eaten breakfast and dressed by the time she moseyed on into Will's office. "Hey," he said and she came over leaning against where he sat in his chair still half asleep. Will pressed his lips into her hair, "Ready to see your mom today?" She might have looked eleven or so, but her mind was nowhere close to that of a pre-teen. She nodded against him and he rubbed a hand up and down her arm. "I don't want you to be surprised by how she looks, ok? She was hurt pretty bad and so she can't move easily and her eye is hurt."

Again the girl nodded. "Can we go see her now?"

"Yeah, let me just make sure she's awake," he pulled up the video camera on his monitor so he could see if the woman had roused from her medically induced sleep. Noting that she had, he grabbed the girls hand and began his way down to the infirmary.

Helen was sitting up and sipping at the tea her old friend had brought her. With one arm in the sling and her other still sore from being strung up for so long she was having difficulty bringing the cup to her lips. She struggled through the motion several times savoring the flavor and heat as it washed away the last dregs of sleep from her system. The door opened tentatively and Helen was able to look and see her daughter's hand on the handle. She watched as Will followed closely behind the girl, her other hand grasping his tightly. Helen smiled and beckoned her daughter to her side.

Sara was too afraid to hug her and held tightly onto Will. He took the empty cup at Helen's behest and set it next to her on a tray table; picking up the girl he set her gently on the bed next to her mother. Helen ran fingers over her daughter's leg in an attempt to comfort the obviously shaken up girl. "It's ok, sweetie; it's ok." Helen moved her fingers to the girl's cheek as Sara brought her head down against Helen's breast, sighing deeply at the security it provided her. Helen continued to softly stroke Sara's hair when she curled against her side.

Will leaned down and kissed Helen's forehead and lips tenderly, "She wanted to see you as soon as she could."

"Thank you," Helen glanced down at the girl before looking back up at the man, deciding to ask her question cryptically. "Did you speak with Declan?"

"Yes, but we'll talk about that later I promise this time. Would you like some more tea?"

"Yes, very much so, thank you." When he leaned over to grab the cup next to her he pressed lips against hers one more time. Helen didn't move her hand from her daughter even though she desperately wanted to hold his head. Instead she opened her mouth and swiped her tongue out to taste him. Will breathed in deep and complied with her wishes, pressing harder against her to entangle his tongue with hers. She pulled away first and smiled, "Thank you, I think…I think I really needed that."

He gave her a loud and wet kiss, "Anytime, love, anytime." Picking up her mug he left the room thinking that he heard her mutter _cheeky_ under her breath.

Helen felt the tiny head on her side rub against her, "Mommy?"

"Yes sweetheart?"

"I know that Will's not my real dad, but…do you…do you think he would mind if I called him dad?"

Helen dearly wished Sara would look at her, but sadly the girl did not. "I think he would love it if you called him that, but you might want to ask him first. I'm not sure how your father would feel about it, though."

"Can't you ask him?"

The woman smiled to herself, "No, sweetheart, that's a conversation you need to have with Will. By the way, how are your studies coming along? I hope Will hasn't let them slide in my absence."

"Um…" Sara raised her head then to look at her mother.

"You haven't worked on a single thing have you?" Sara bit her lip in quite a good mimic of her mother. "Well, we'll just have to—" Just at that moment Will walked back into the room with a hot cup of tea in his hand. "William…" her voice crooned over to him. "Just what have you been teaching our daughter?"

His movement only faltered slightly when he stalked towards her. Firstly, 'our daughter' and secondly, that tone in her voice did not sound like this was going to be a pleasant conversation for him. For her, yes, but no way was he going to enjoy it. "Sara, what have you been telling the poor woman?"

"Nothing, I promise, I haven't told her anything. She figured it out on her own."

"Figured what out?" Sara was now sitting cross-legged next to the woman in question. Will moved around her and handed the warm mug to Helen before sitting on the stool that had yet to move its vigil.

"That someone has not been keeping up with her studies and another someone has not been keeping her up with her studies." Helen raised her eyebrows in his direction before taking a long sip of the hot water.

Will rolled his eyes in her direction, "I think there were mitigating circumstances, but since the woman wants study time the child will get study time." His eyes moved to Sara and she nodded in understanding. Kissing her mom on her cheek quickly she whispered a goodbye before leaving the room. Will waited until he was sure the girl was gone, "'Our daughter'?"

Helen only shrugged and easily changed the topic at hand, "Did you speak with Declan? I want to see Jephthah before he is moved."

"I did. They'll be leaving tomorrow morning, so you'll have to be quick if you want to see him. I don't want you to talk to him though."

"I have no intention on speaking with the man. That will only result in me harming him." She calmly took another sip of tea glad she had gotten her way.

A month had passed and she was still recovering from the beating she had taken. She still woke startled to Jephthah's cold eyes staring at her from the isolation room window. Will had seen it every time she sat straight up in the bed, but she ignored it and his reaction. Instead she would turn into his warm body and feign sleep until he was forced to leave to begin the work day.

One week prior, Helen had been allowed back into the research labs to continue her work, and she found that if she stayed up as late as possible working she would be too exhausted for dreams and nightmares. John had said she had a cure to Sara's rapid growth and Helen was determined to find it. If only she had gotten the bloody man to reveal the cure before she had kicked him out of her life once again. She was two days into not sleeping when Will showed up at the door to the lab and watched her in silence.

Her eyes were slipping closed and her head bowing down lightly, bouncing up suddenly as she caught herself falling into slumber. "Helen." She didn't turn at his voice; she knew exactly what he was going to say and she absolutely did not want to hear it. Instead she ignored him and looked back into her microscope. "Helen." His voice was more forceful this time and he planted hands on her shoulders turning her on the slim metal stool to face him. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong." Her skin was no longer bruised but her body was still broken in many places. Will, however, was more concerned with her mental state.

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying, William." She leaned into him then and planted lips against his. She pulled his body squarely into hers and ghosted her fingers over his chest.

He lost his thoughts in the essence and flavor of the kiss until he realized exactly what she was doing—she had, after all, done it plenty of times before. He was quiet when he pushed her back and away from him, although he left his hands in place on her shoulders, "Stop." Her body took a moment, but it started shaking then and she refused to let their eyes meet. "Helen, tell me what's going on. You're exhausted and purposefully not sleeping or taking care, please, let me help."

She forcefully shook her head against his body when he dragged her face into his chest. Soothing a hand over her hair he almost missed her words, "I'm afraid."

"Of what?"

"That this will never end, that she'll always be in danger because of me. It's Ashley all over again."

"Yeah, I know. But, Jephthah is in custody and he's not getting loose anytime soon. The Cabal are totally wiped out, I don't think there's any lingering remnants of it this time around. Other than that, we just have to take it all step by step."

"I know, but I can't help feeling that this is my fault."

"It's a hard feeling to avoid."

"Yeah," she pulled back and wiped the few stray tears that had released off her face and stood. Planting a smile on her features she held out a hand to him, "Take me to bed, William. I'm dreadfully tired."

"Yes, milady."

"Cheeky."

They made it almost the entire way to their room in silence before he spoke again, "I want you to take tomorrow off." The look she gave him was a glaring warning, "At least half a day and since technically I'm your boss now, I can force it."

"Fine, I need to take Sara shopping to get more clothes anyway. She grows so fast that it's hard to keep up."

Hours and hours later, Helen found herself waiting outside the dressing room for Sara in the junior section of the store. She certainly was growing quickly. She had pairs of jeans and shirts in her hands when she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Turning to the large window fully she looked out at the people walking along the street. It couldn't have been Jephthah; he was in London under constant supervision. Yet, she was sure she had seen him walking along with the other tourists.

It was just then that she heard the large and loud thud behind her in Sara's dressing room. Through the bottom slit in the doorway she could see her daughter lying on the ground convulsing sharply in the midst of a seizure. "Sara!" Helen dropped the clothes and ran to the door finding it locked. Shoving hard the mechanism loosed and the door fell open.

Helen's knees were on the dirty carpet and her face was over Sara's body holding her head so she wouldn't bang it recklessly against anything sharp. Someone yelled behind her for help and to call 911, but Sara's body was already beginning to slow in its convulsions. Helen removed a hand from the girl's hair and pressed fingers to her throat, her pulse was weak and slowing. "Damn it, Sara. You cannot do this to me."

In minutes Sara's face was relaxed and unmoving; her heart no longer beating by the time the paramedics arrived and shoved Helen out of the way.

She wasn't ushered into the ambulance, and everyone kept giving her pitying looks. Police were talking to her and she was barely answering their questions. God, what was she going to tell Will? "Ma'am, is there anyone we can call for you?" Call, yes, she needed to call Will; she needed him here, with her, right now. She nodded in an answer and pulled out Will's card from her purse, silently handing it the man. He moved off and pulled out his cell phone when she saw Sara's small form on the gurney. She watched it as they placed her in the ambulance. She had been told the girl would be taken to the city morgue for a proper autopsy, even though Helen knew the cause of death. So long as they didn't run a DNA scan, they should be fine.

Her arms were wrapped around her body, shielding herself from the cold that was threatening to take over her skin. She refused to cry. It would only make her head hurt and she couldn't—there was no way that her daughter had just died. Sara couldn't be dead—she couldn't have lost two children. The cop came back over and moved her to sit in the open door of his vehicle. He had a worried look on his face, probably because she wasn't responding to anything. Nothing was penetrating her thick exterior. "Ma'am, the man I called said he would be here as soon as he could." She nodded. She hoped Will wasn't worried about her, that wouldn't do him any good.

This was going to be hard on him, harder than Ashley had been. He had only known both for little under a year, but Sara had wheedled her way into his heart. This was going to be very hard on him. Lost in her thoughts she hadn't realized that much time had passed but it obviously did because she saw Will talking to an officer who pointed at her. He moved to her quickly, his steps fast but not quite urgent, after all things tended to always go pear shaped in their lives and this could be anything. He ducked his head down so he could look at her properly, but she didn't move her eyes to meet him. Deciding it was necessary; he kneeled down and took her hands in his, looking at her face. "Want to tell me what's going on? The officer just said I needed to come down here right away."

Oh God, she thought, he had absolutely no idea. She did look at him then and he saw everything in her face and unshed tears. They began to pour over her cheeks and he suddenly stood up. "Where's Sara?" She only shook her head sharply in response, "Helen, where's Sara, what happened to her?"

She sniffed in, still trying to hold back the wave of grief that was going to burst forth in any second, "She's gone." Her voice was so small, so depressed that he stared at her in shock. "She's dead."

"What?" He tried to move but Helen had stood and collapsed against him. There was nothing he could do except wrap his arms tightly around her and hold on as his world came crashing down.

"There was nothing I could do. She had a seizure and there was nothing…" He kissed the top of her head looking around for Sara; he had to see her, to confirm that what Helen was saying really had happened. It was then he saw the open doors of the ambulance and the covered prone form in the back of it. He pressed his face into the woman's neck and let the tears begin to flow out of him. They held each other like that for a very long time before the cop who had questioned her before had come over and tried to talk to them again. He took down some more information from Will specifically, before he told them they could go and that he'd be by the next day to talk to them some more.

The following week had flowed quickly and yet dragged on and on. They held a service as soon as the girl's body was released: luckily they had run into few complications in the entire process. Sara's body had lovingly been placed next to Ashley.

Helen had dove into work, taking over for Will as he struggled to rise each morning and stay each day. She was running everything once again and avoiding the lab like the plague lived there. She turned in late most nights and never spoke a word to him when she slipped under the covers. The distance between them grew with each passing night to the point where it was tangible and others were beginning to notice. Their world had become one of silence and evasion.

She woke up to him crying for the third night in a row, but this time his sobs were so deep that the entire bed shook. Giving in, she turned to face him and pulled his emotionally exhausted body into hers. Helen rubbed hands over his back and face, wiping the salty droplets away and kissing his reddened cheeks. She held him until he calmed, but the tears were still in his eyes although no more fell. Finally she whispered, "I found a cure for her rapid growth…that night before, I'd actually found it. But it wouldn't have made a difference."

"What was it?"

"My blood."

He nodded in understanding, "She asked if she could call me dad." His voice broke as he finished the sentence.

Helen smiled, "I know, she talked to me about it first."

"I just…I never thought I would fall that hard for her."

"I know; me neither. But that's love in its strongest form." Her eyes began to leak and she pressed tightly into him. "Hold me tonight Will, I need to be held." And he did. They fell asleep that way, waking late the next morning to begin another grief filled journey.

_A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this and yes this is the last chapter…no more. Don't kill me because of the ending please! I know it's sad, but that's me. A few things I should mention._

_No I did not plan on having 12 chapters for the 12 months of the year…it was purely coincidence because this piece was actually only supposed to be like 3 chapters when I started it._

_Jephthah…I know it's a hard name to pronounce, but there is a reason why I chose it. He is a biblical character and goes to fight this war. He says to God that if he wins this war he will kill whoever walks out of his house to greet him first as a sacrifice. When he wins the war, Jephthah returns home and his one and only daughter walks out of the door and he's now gotta keep his promise to God and sacrifice her. He does, he kills his daughter. (See the connection?) So if you were biblically minded or in my biblical studies class you would have known who it was the entire time lol._

_Please review, I want to make sure I didn't kill any of you in the writing of this…or that you didn't lose faith in me and my humanity. lol_


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